HAD Dale Garland been at the World Championships, he would have made the 400m hurdles semi-finals with the time he ran at the McCain UK Challenge Final in Cardiff.

The 28-year-old Guernsey Olympian set a personal best time and a new Channel Islands record of 49.54sec.

On the same day at the Worlds in Berlin, British representative Rhys Williams failed to qualify out of the heats as he managed 49.88.

The slowest qualifying time was 49.64.

‘It was good to run on the same day,’ said Garland yesterday.

‘I was faster than Rhys Williams, but his season’s best is quicker than mine. I would have made the semi-finals. It’s nice to have done that.’

Garland did admit that the conditions helped him.

Garland’s stride pattern sees him take 13 steps between the hurdles for the first 200m of the race, while his opponents took 14.

He said that having the wind behind him during this stage assisted him.