Valencia, Spain – Dale Garland running for Great Britain at the World Indoor Championships in the relay final.

DALE GARLAND is playing down the Facebook furore highlighted by the BBC Sport website yesterday.

During a break in a weights session as he finalises preparations for the Beijing Olympics, the island’s best-ever athlete remains cool on the fuss provoked by the non-selection of Richard Yates and Andrew Strachan, a 168-word rant on Facebook [the internet chat room] and a threat of boycotts and protests at last night’s London Grand Prix, the last big event before Beijing. In his typical laconic style, Garland said: ‘Yer, it’s interesting. But I’m not worried.’

Garland was understandably keen not to enter the argument over his selection provoked, by people who see him ranked as 17th or 19th best best over 400 in the UK (dependant on which ranking site you look at) and yet chosen for the six-man 4x400m squad. Those critics, many of them obviously ignorant of Garland’s full track record, conveniently forget that the Guernseyman is not, in pure athletics terms, a one-lap runner. He is a hurdler and runs very few 400m races.