Tom Druce dips for the finish line only to discover the sprint relay squad had been disqualified. (0799632)

A FANTASTIC meeting could hardly have had a better ending for Guernsey’s athletes in the Wiklof Holding Arena yesterday.

Four gold medals as well as a silver and three bronze just put the icing on the cake of the 4x400m men’s relay performance.

What with Dale Garland’s late appearance at these Games, interest was heightened among the whole of Team Guernsey as to what this Sarnian quartet could achieve and, boy, did they deliver.

Garland and Tom Druce are the celebrated stars of the side, but Hywel Robinson and Matt Bailey produced the goods just when needed and under intense pressure.

Robinson’s initial reaction was to pay tribute to the big guns – ‘these guys were running to get guys like me and Matt to the Commonwealth Games and I cannot thank them enough,’ he said – but when it comes to a team effort, it is hard to surpass this.

The young Robinson gave his side the ideal start and Bailey also produced a strong leg before Druce took over.

The exact splits were not known in the new Games record time of 3-12.38, but his would have been very quick as he pulled away from the nearest challengers, the Isle of Man.

Garland then did what Garland does and completed his lap in around 45sec.

One thing is for sure, the performance banished any blues the guys were feeling from the 4x100m final earlier in when they were disqualified for changing over outside the box on the final leg.