Dale guns for place in Osaka

DALE GARLAND is out to win the 400m hurdles at the Norwich Union World Trials & UK Champion-ships at the weekend and book himself into the World Championships. The meet at the Manchester Regional Arena is not quite the last chance saloon for the Guernsey athlete, but time is running out for him to make the Great Britain team for the worlds that take place in Osaka, Japan, at the end of next month.

The 26-year-old needs to run under the qualifying time of 49.20sec. to guarantee his place, although a time of 49.7 would see him qualify for the B string.

Garland says he will have another couple of chances to make the main qualifying time before the British selectors pick their squad but things are against him as he is still not 100 per cent, having a hamstring problem he had picked up earlier in the season.

The injury confined him to the 400m flat at the Rhodes Island Games.

However, Garland goes into the meeting with confidence as he aims for gold.

'I'm confident in my running from what I've been doing in training after the Island Games,' he said.

'I've done one hurdles race and I was 0.7 off my personal best. If I can get the stride pattern right, I know that I can do a good time.

'I've got to go out and win, but it's hard because I've only done that one hurdle race since I pulled my hamstring eight or nine weeks ago.

'I've been having constant physio and massage - it's a pain. The problem is not the hamstring but the muscles surrounding it aren't firing properly.'

The 400m hurdles heats are the first event of the trial nationals at 6pm tomorrow. The final takes place the following day at 4.10pm.

Garland goes into the meeting as the number two seed as only David Greene has run faster than him this season.

The Welshman also won gold this month at the European Under-23 Championships in Debrecen, Hungary.

'He won the European under-23s the other week with a personal best of 49.58,' said Garland.

'He'll definitely be the guy to beat. I've come second twice before and I don't want to come second again especially as I'm ranked second.'

Going to the worlds would be a first for Garland and he sees it as a taster for next year's Beijing Olympics at which he has his heart set on competing.

'It's the same standard as the Olympics,' he said.

'This is the perfect warm up for it. Same weather, same timetable and pretty similar conditions.'

Fellow Sarnian Tom Druce is competing in Manchester as the 20-year-old runs the 400m.

The Bath University student won gold in Rhodes over 800m and ran the final leg for Guernsey's gold medal-winning 400m relay team.

Those heats take place at 6.35pm today.

Lee Merrien also runs in Manchester, contesting the 5,000m on Sunday on the back of finishing fifth over 3,000m in a BMC meet in Solihull at the weekend, clocking 8-02.

'It was a big field and quite messy at the start, but I was still in the mix with a lap to go,' he said.

'Quite a few of those athletes will be competing at the nationals so it was a useful warm-up.'