It was not until 1949 and the opening of the Sussex Athletics track in Hove that any track in Sussex had permanent steeplechase barriers on site let alone a water jump. Consequently the two mile steeplechase championship did not feature in the Sussex County championships till then
In these circumstances it was rather puzzling that one of the two Sussex athletes to be included in the Great Britain team for the 1948 Olympics at Wembley was a steeplechaser, T.P.E (Tony) Curry (Thames and Hare Hounds) who did not survive his heat. I believe he was a Brighton and Sussex Grammar School boy who lived in Mid-Sussex and I do not think he had much of an impact on Sussex athletics. Any information would be most welcome.
Then we were still racing over two miles for the steeplechase Curry held the Sussex record but this was quickly broken by Horsham’s Dick Tidey, and then Brighton A.C’s Bert Foster and Hugh Foord but the distance soon changed to 3,000m well before the general change to metric distances in 1969. John May (Horsham/Crawley/Mitcham) lowered the record to 8:51.4 in 1965 and Bill Mullett (Brighton & Hove), the father of Rob, made it respectable in 1969 with 8:40.8s.
It was however Mark Rowland who became the real star of Sussex steeplechasing in the 1980s.
Born at Watersfield in West Sussex on 7th March 1963 Mark Robert Rowland made an impressive appearance when he was at Midhurst Grammar School and he joined the Bognor Regis Athletics Club. He showed great promise in Cross Country events and in middle distance races on the track winning several County championships as he moved through the age groups representing Sussex at both cross-country and track Inter-county matches.
He was equally as successful in Sussex Schools events, where he collected several titles and competed at both the Track and Cross-country English Schools championships as well as donning the English junior vest.
He was however not an every weekend competitor, probably because he did not live that close to a track and Bognor was never a strong cross country club.
He first made the British Ranking lists in 1980 when he clocked 1:52.1s for the Youths (U17) 800 metres, the fifth fastest British youth. But good as it was it was not the best by a Sussex youth because Mark Hirsch (Haywards Heath) clocked 1:51.7s that year.
Rowland had reduced his 800m time to 1:49.8s in 1984 by which time he had joined Phoenix and the accent moved to the longer distance events and his first major senior internationals was the World Indoor championships at Indiapolis in 1987 where he finished fourth in the 3000m event in 8:04.27s which was to prove his fastest ever time for the distance.
1988 Seoul was Mark’s year however, he had been the clear number one British steeplechaser and his 8:16.34s in Stockholm in July lifted him to a probable finalist but with three rounds it might have proved to be a matter of strength. This was born out in September when Mark took 2nd place in his heat and third place in the semi-final and was always in the mix in the final. He was however unable to contain the Kenyan runners in a close run race. Kariuki kicked off on the last lap and though hotly pursued by Koech and Mark fighting to keep with him. Kariuki held on to take the gold in a new Olympic record of 8:05.51s to Koech clocking 8:06.79s and Mark chopping nine seconds off his previous personal best to hold on to the bronze medal in 8:07.96s a new British Record and thirty years on it is still the fastest time ever run by any British athlete.
Following Seoul Mark was to develop Achilles problems that affected the rest of his athletic career although he was still able to notch up some pretty impressive international results.
In 1990 he was to be outsprinted by the Italian Franceso Panetta for the European 3,000m steeplechase title in 8:13.27s but Panetta had been strongly fancied to take the Olympic crown two years earlier but left without a medal. In the same year in Auckland Mark was to take seventh place in the Commonwealth Games 5,000m in 13:35.69s.
Achilles problems affected both his training and racing in 1991 and the run up to the 1992 Olympics and although he did achieve the Olympic qualifying standard it was too late for selection. Had it been in time, he would probably have declined as the injury was still causing too many problems.
In 2020 Mark is still the third fastest Sussex athlete in the 1500m and One mile behind Steve Ovett and Charlie Grice (Phoenix) with 3:34.60s and 3:52.99s and also third in the 5000m events behind Ovett and Tim Hutchings (Crawley) and 13:21.83s and fourth in 3000 in 7:49.82s (Indoor 7:46.22s) behind Ovett, Hutchings and Lee Emanuel as well as heading the Steeplechase All-time list with 8:07.96s.
Mark stayed in athletics spending a few years as the Sussex Development Officer and the UK Steeplechase and middle distance coach. During this time, amongst others, he coached Jemma Simpson (Newquay) and Michael East (NEB) who took sixth place in the 1500m in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
In 2008 Mark left for the United States where he took up the post of Head Coach at the Nike Oregon Track Club Elite team at Eugene.