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Twenty-nine-year-old Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, who grew up in London, Ontario, has now moved to Edinburgh, Scotland. She will now train with coach Mark Rowland and partner Rowan DeBues-Stafford. Rowland and Rowan DeBues-Stafford will co-coach her.
“This process happened pretty organically. Rowan coaching me might not be news to some as this shift happened in late May of last year, but I realise I haven’t explicitly announced that publicly yet,” she wrote on social media.
DeBues-Stafford most recently worked with Trent Stellingwerff in Victoria, BC. The couple have followed Mark Rowland from Athletics Canada’s West Hub in Victoria to the University of Edinburgh’s Global Endurance Project.
Mark Rowland
Rowland is noted for coaching Michael East to his sixth-place finish in the 1500 metre at the 2004 Athens Olympics. In 2008, Rowland became head coach of the Oregon Track Club Elite team. It was here where he coached a number of athletes to Olympic and World Championship medals and finalist positions.
Rowland also coached the likes of Jemma Simpson, Nick Symmonds, Lauren Fleshman, Nijel Amos, Francine Niyonsaba, and Sally Kipyego, among others. In 2022, Rowland left Oregon Track Club to become an endurance coach at Athletics Canada’s West Hub in Victoria. This was roughly similar timing to DeBues-Stafford’s arrival in Victoria.
DeBues-Stafford and Rowland may have crossed paths in Oregon, where she was with the Bowerman Track Club. Both Bowerman and Oregon Track Club were Nike projects.
DeBues-Stafford also wrote, “Although we got some great work done in the fall in Victoria, Rowan and I were in the process of reevaluating our training setup for the next Olympic cycle. As much as we loved our time in Victoria, we have always loved the UK. Rowan and I had already made the decision that we wanted to shake things up, and then we learned that Mark (Rowland) was taking up the job as Head Coach at a new and ambitious track program at the University of Edinburgh… So here we are! Life is funny!”
DeBues-Stafford
Gabriela DeBues-Stafford had three years, between 2019 and 2022, when she became Canada’s all-time greatest middle-distance runner. She set seven national records, and a few of them multiple times.
Her 5000m best was run in 14:31.38 at Boston University in February 2022. This performance is the North American and Canadian national record. In 2019, she set the 1500m national record at 3:56.12. Here, she became the first Canadian to breach the four-minute barrier in the metric mile. Her indoor metric mile best is also a national record at 4:00.80. During the 2019 Monaco Diamond League meet, DeBues-Stafford clocked a new national record in the imperial miles (1609m) going 4:17.87.
Not her specialty in the 800m event. Not so long ago, only a small handful of Canadians had run sub two minutes. Her best is 1:58.70.
At the 2020 (2021) Tokyo Olympic Games, she ran 3:58.93 to take fifth position in the 1500m. Kenyan Faith Kipyegon won gold in 3:53.11.
DeBues-Stafford has suffered from repeated injuries since her biggest year in 2022. She has not been able to train through an ideal cycle, but has kept generally fit through base periods of volume mileage.
Rowan and Gabriela were married in 2019, both taking the same hyphenated name DeBues-Stafford. They met at the University of Toronto.
