DALE GARLAND marked his senior British debut by playing a key role in keeping the four-man decathlon squad in the First League of the European Cup for Combined Events. The Brits were struggling to avoid the drop all weekend in Hengelo in the Netherlands, but a fine team effort in the closing 1,500m saw them sneak in front of Slovenia and into sixth place in the eight-team division.

Garland was the best of the Brits in the 1,500m, clocking a time of 4-19.60 in a tactical race aimed predominantly at edging out the Slovenians.

‘Team-wise we had to take either 25sec. out of the Czech team or 90sec. out of the team immediately above us, Slovenia,’ said Garland from his Dutch base last evening.

‘We were a few hundred points down, but as team we took 95sec, out of them.’

The Guernseyman had already upset the formbook by emerging second best of the British squad. Only Brendan McConville beat him as Garland placed 16th overall out of the 32 competitors, as usual the throws being his achilles heel.

He had been sixth overnight after a first-day score of 3,384 which had exactly matched his island-record performance from earlier in the season.

He slipped back on his weaker second day and finished 34 points short of his best, which disappointed him but was no surprise after a cold sidelined him in the week leading up to the event.

‘I made a lot of mistakes. Because I was ill I think it affected ny discus and high jump – the two technical events I’d normally have spent time practising.

‘But, looking back, I can’t whinge.

‘It has been a very good weekend and I’m very happy.’

Of the 10 events in two days he picked out his

pole vault, 100m, 400m and long jump as his most satisfying.

The 10.91 sprint was a PB and so was his first four-metre vault, a 25cm improvement to be exact and a new island record.

A 47.97sec. 400m was also very handy in windy conditions and was the best one-lap run of all the field. He also topped the long jump and was second quickest in the distance run.