Guernsey Sporting Heroes - Dale Garland

One of Dale’s most promising performances as a young athlete was finishing sixth at the National Cross Country Championships as a thirteen year old. He then showed particular aptitude for the 400metres and also as a 400m hurdler, which he concentrated on when he arrived at Bath University to take up a sports studies degree.

However, he soon began to impress in the decathlon (ten events) making his senior UK international debut in the European Cup in 2004. During this year he advanced his points total to 7171 and he also ran a personal best of 51.16 for 2nd in the AAA 400m hurdles. By 2007, Dale was lifting the UK 400m hurdles title with victory at the Sportscity Stadium in Manchester.

Dale competed in the decathlon for Guernsey in 2002 and 2006 in the Commonwealth Games. In the latter he added 242 points to his Guernsey record making the new record a total of 7413 points.

In the 4 x 400m relay he was part of the GB team that won a silver medal at the European Indoor Championships in 2005 and with the Guernseyman a key performer, the team went one better in 2007 by winning gold.

In 2008, Dale was selected as part of the six strong GB relay squad for the men’s 4 x 400m at the Beijing Olympics.  Unfortunately he never had the opportunity to compete.