DALE GARLAND has been enjoying breakfast in bed as he prepares for this weekend’s world athletics championships with the British team in Macau. The Guernsey star leaves the Chinese colony today bound for Osaka in Japan where the track action gets under way on Friday night our time.

Garland runs the 400m hurdles heats on the opening day of competition and islanders can expect to see him live on BBC as they have their lunch on Saturday.

‘It’s weird really, just preparing for one race. Normally you have a mind on the next one and the one after that,’ he said yesterday after another draining day training in the heat and stifling humidity of Macau, where the team have been for the last 10 days.

‘Today it was really hard with about 94% humidity.

‘It has been overcast most days with a lot of rain and thunder and about 30C.

‘In Osaka it’s expected to be as hot but humidity levels not so high. Osaka has been about 36-37C but the humidity there is about 60-ish.’

Garland trains every day with Britain’s big sprint hope Craig Pickering under the supervision of their coach, Malcolm Arnold.

‘People train at different times but I go down at nine with Craig most days and go down early.’

Garland still hopes to be named in the six-strong 4 x 400m relay squad but is realistic about his chances of running in what is traditionally the most thrilling of all the track events on the last day of competition.

‘The squad of six will be announced at some point and I hope to get in that.

‘It largely depends on how I run [in the 400 hurdles], but I think I will be in the six. I think I will be the sixth choice.’

Normally that would suggest Garland getting a run out in the semi-finals, but he suspects that won’t be the case this time due to the GB squad being weaker than in past years and possibly needing to field their top four just to get through to the final.