Posted: December 16, 2008  :

(RRW) Athletics: Olympic Medalist Rowland To Coach OTC Elite

From David Monti © 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com Legendary coach Frank Gagliano, who recently retired from coaching the Nike-backed Oregon Track Club Elite, has been replaced by Olympic medalist Mark Rowland of Great Britain. Rowland will now be coaching athletes like Nick Symmonds and Christian Smith. "I'm very excited to be joining the OTC and honored to take the baton from Gags," said Rowland, 45, at a press conference in Eugene, Ore., last Monday. "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." Rowland won a bronze medal in the 3000m steeplechase at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. He began his coaching career in 1997, and was named Britain's national event coach for the steeplechase in 2000. He spent five years as performance manager at UK athletics, and was then named the senior performance coach for endurance. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest