THE Olympic dream Dale Garland thought was his to fulfil, is over. His late bid to grab a vacant spot in Britain’s 4x400m relay squad for Beijing failed at the European Permit meeting in Loughborough yesterday afternoon.

Needing to post a lifetime 400m best of 46.2sec. or quicker, he ran out of steam to finish down a good-quality field in 47.4. ‘I got spanked,’ was his immediate reaction. ‘I just died. I had to work hard in the first 200 metres and just had nothing to give at all after that. I felt like I had zero fitness.’

Garland concedes the game is up for this Olympics, one which appeared in his grasp when just a month ago he headed the national 400m hurdles rankings and ran the second quickest of Britain’s 400 relay squad at the European Cup event in Annecy.

But shortly after that his old foe, the dodgy hamstring, returned to wreck his preparations for the run-in to China. Whether he will be as competitive in four years’ time when the Olympics go to London, is debatable.