Garland aims for Olympics

DALE GARLAND has the A-standard qualifying time for Beijing in his sights at this weekend's 29th Spar European Cup in Annecy, France.

The 27-year-old Sarnian will represent Great Britain in the 400m hurdles.

To be selected for the Beijing Olympics in August, Garland at least requires the B standard time of 49.5sec.

And despite a best of 50.1 so far this season, he is confident of running the A standard of 49.2 and so having a better chance of selection.

'I really want to get the A-standard time so that they can't pick and choose,' he said.

'In every race I do now, I need to get the qualifying standard. They are gettable goals.

'I've done 50.1 and I need to knock a second off that. The conditions haven't been great and I've won every race.

'It's going to be good to get out there this weekend as everyone is running these kinds of time.'

Garland sees the main contender for gold at the weekend as Poland's Marek Plawgo.

The 27-year-old won bronze at last year's World Championships.

Another hurdler to look out for is European champion Periklis Iakovakis of Greece.

'It's going to be a very good race,' said Garland.

'I'm feeling very good and I'm getting faster and faster every week.'

There were worries that Garland might be injured because he missed the Welsh Championships at the weekend.

He says he has no fitness problems and that he did that to conserve himself for a few busy weeks ahead.

'I didn't do the Welsh as I just wanted to prepare for this race and then I've got a race in Belgium the week after,' he said.

'If I had done the Welsh, there would have been no respite.'