Mark Rowland

Mark Rowland

Personal information
Born	(1963-03-07) 7 March 1963
Medal record Men's Athletics Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games 1988 Seoul 3000m Steeplechase European Championships 1990 Split 3000 m steeplechase

Mark Robert Rowland (born 7 March 1963 in Watersfield, West Sussex, England) is a retired British track and field athlete, who was a bronze medallist at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

Rowland came third in the men's men's 3000 m Steeplechase behind the Kenyan competitors Julius Kariuki (gold) and Peter Koech (silver). His time was 8:07.96 minutes which remains a British record.

Rowland became the eighth and, thus far, final British athlete to pick up a medal in the steeplechase event at the Olympics. His post-race interview at the track-side was famous for his quote:

Two years later, Rowland was beaten to the gold in a sprint finish in the same event at the European Championships in Split by the Italian athlete Francesco Panetta.

Rowland's career didn't hit such heights again and, after retiring, he became a coach to many promising young British steeplechasers and was steeplechase and middle-distance coach for UK Athletics.

He is now training athletes, including British middle-distance runner Jemma Simpson and American Lauren Fleshman in the USA for the Oregon Track Club Elite.^[2]

He also coached Mike East, British 1500m runner to his 6th place at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Great Britain /  England
1987	World Indoor Championships	Indianapolis, United States	4th	3000 m	8:04.27
1988	Olympic Games	Seoul, South Korea	3rd	3000 m steeplechase	8:07.96
1990	Commonwealth Games	Auckland, New Zealand	7th	5000 m	13:35.69
	European Championships	Split, Yugoslavia	2nd	3000 m steeplechase	8:13.27
1994	European Championships	Helsinki, Finland	4th	3000 m steeplechase	8:26.00

References

• sports-reference
• gbrathletics