Mark Rowland Hired as Oregon Track Club Elite Head Coach

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Eugene, OR—The OTC Elite has hired 45-year-old Mark Rowland, from Great Britain, to replace retiring track and field coaching legend, Frank “Gags” Gagliano.

“After and expansive search, which included candidates from North America, Europe and Australia, the Oregon Track Club is pleased that Mark Rowland has accepted the opportunity to become the head coach of the NIKE Oregon Track Club Elite,” stated Vin Lananna, OTC Elite’s president and University of Oregon associate athletic director. Lananna chaired the search committee for the OTC Elite coach.

Coach Rowland has enjoyed success as an athlete, youth development director and as the Senior Performance Coach for Endurance at UK Athletics. He has been instrumental in the development of high performance track and field in the UK since 1997 and was nominated as the UK endurance coach for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

In 2000, Rowland was hired as National Event Coach of the 3,000-meter steeplechase, where he was responsible for the coordination of the National Strategy in support of athlete preparation for relevant Major Championships.

“I’m very excited to be joining the OTC and honored to take the baton from Gags,” said Rowland. “This has been an amazing process and with the help of Vin Lananna and NIKE we’ve managed to create a phenomenal environment for the continued success of national and international caliber middle-distance and distance runners; men and women.”

Coach Rowland’s experience on the track goes beyond coaching, as he was the 1988 bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Seoul Olympics. Several of his English athletes have included Michael East and Hayley Tullett. East was the 1,500-meter gold medalist at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and has a personal best of 3:32.37. Tullett posted her best performance in the 2003 World Championships in Paris, where she took home the bronze medal in the 1,500-meters. Tullett has a personal best in the 1,500-meters of 3:59.95.

“There have been many members of our constituencies who have interacted with coach Rowland; all were in agreement that Mark would be an outstanding member of the Track Town community,” said Lananna.

The NIKE Oregon Track Club Elite began in 2006 under the watchful eye of Frank Gagliano, and has become the preeminent post-collegiate middle-distance and distance training group in America. The OTC Elite had twenty-three athletes competing in the 2008 Olympic Trials, held at Hayward Field, and produced three Olympians who competed in Beijing.

“Recently looking at the University of Oregon’s accomplishments and the success of the Oregon Track Club under Gags, and even having the good fortune to visit Eugene in the ’80s, I’ve been very impressed with the outstanding community support. It’s no wonder this club has had so much success in a short period of time,” said Rowland. “I am very excited to be the newest member of the OTC and the newest resident of Track Town, USA.”

For additional information, please contact Rob Vermillion of the Oregon Track Club at [email protected] or call 541-556-3245.

More on Mark Rowland

Mark ROWLAND rose to international acclaim as an athlete beginning in 1985. His major accomplishments as an athlete are:
• UK – 1985 1st place in 1500m.
• UK – 1988 1st place in steeplechase, 1989 1st place 5000m ,
• 1987 - 1994 national representative for the UK in many major championships.
• Bronze Medal at 1988 Olympic Games for the 3000m steeplechase event
• Silver Medal at 1990 at the European Championship in Croatia for the 3000m steeplechase event.

After an outstanding athletic career, Coach ROWLAND began his coaching career in 1997 as the Director of Coaching for the Athletics Youth Foundation in England. While serving as the Director of Coaching, Mark had many achievements and successes. In liaison with the Lewes Tertiary College he set up an athletics development course to enable athletes to pursue academic and vocational goals at a College of Further Education. Coach ROWLAND’s concept design has been such a success that other ‘athletic academies’ are now being established within the South East region. Coach ROWLAND also administered the Sussex Millennium Youth Games in 2000, and initially set up and developed a series of athletic challenges as part of a talent identification process for 14-16 year olds.

In the year 2000, Coach ROWLAND became the National Event Coach for the Steeplechase. As National Event Coach, he was responsible for the coordination of the National Strategy in support of athlete preparation for relevant Major Championships. Coach ROWLAND set up an effective Steeplechase Program, and identified a panel of coaches and support staff, who have contributed to National Strategy. He also assisted in the development of curriculum and coaching education materials for UK Athletics Coach Education. Finally, Coach ROWLAND actively mentored aspiring coaches in Endurance events and implemented testing protocols for Middle Distance events.

From the year 2000 to 2005 Coach ROWLAND also worked as the Performance Manager at UK Athletics where he set up and established the London South Performance Centre. He also established strong communication with coaches and athletes on the world-class potential plan.

Finally from 2005 to present time, Coach ROWLAND has worked as the Senior Performance Coach for Endurance at UK Athletics where his role is to provide direct coaching input to identified World Class Pathway athletes and direct technical input and support to other coaches and athletes. In this capacity Coach ROWLAND set up and established World Class Pathway athletes’ training in quality training environments, created a high-performance lifestyle and ethos within the Endurance Centre, and delivered high quality services to support World Class Performance Plan (WCPP) athletes. He effectively monitored athlete progression and implemented his Steeplechase Strategy as a template for other endurance events. World-class UK athletes Michael East and Hayley Tullett are a clear demonstration of the high level of expertise Coach ROWLAND possesses. In acknowledgment for his outstanding coaching skills and extraordinary success, coach ROWLAND was nominated as a coach for the UK track and field team at the Beijing Olympic Games.

Mark has a wife, Steph, and three children—one son and two daughters, one of which is still high school-aged, and has made the move to Eugene with the family.