Tommy Rowlands finished fifth in the 2007 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. Larry Slater photo.
Continued from page 36 the World Championships.”
U.S. National Coach Zeke Jones was
in Tempe, Ariz., watching Rowlands per- form at the Sunkist event. “Tommy’s really done well getting back
to World class form,” Jones said. “He’s consistently performed well domestically and internationally. With Tommy, he moves well as a big man and has a great leg attack. He’ll need to improve on short time lead strategy because he’ll be in the lead late in the period. Like most of our Americans, he needs to work on head blocking shots.
“Everyone in our country knows how deep we are at heavyweight. He’s going to have to get past some darn good heavyweights to make our team. But the good thing is whoever does make it out of the fight will be positioned to win a World title. This weight class reminds me of the old days of American wrestling
when we were 6-8 deep in a weight class and whoever won the weight was going to challenge for gold.” Rowlands said he expects the U.S. to bounce back after failing to win a medal in freestyle at the 2010 World Championships in Russia.
“When you look at the body of work from the U.S. freestyle team in the past 365 days, the World Championships did- n’t reflect what we did at other tourna- ments,” he said. “Obviously, the World Championships is the No. 1 event and you’ve got to win there, but we’re not as far off as the World Championships might indicate. “We need to continue to improve. Coach Jones and company are doing all the right things. Rome wasn’t built overnight. We need to continue to improve. I don’t want to be just the No. 1 American. I want to be No. 1 in the World. We just need to keep working and
grind it out and get it done.”
Rowlands is training and continuing in his role as director of the Ohio Regional Training Center in Columbus. “Everything is going well,” Rowlands said. “We are doing well financially. We continue to add athletes. We have a great coaching staff, great resources and great facilities.”
Rowlands continues to train with Dlagnev in Columbus. “It’s a unique situation with Tervel,” Rowlands said. “We are trying to be the best in the World at the highest weight class.
“How many real training partners can you have at heavyweight? There just aren’t that many top guys to train with. We are in a good situation because we are good friends and we know we can make each better by training together. We are preparing each other to win the gold medal.”
USA Wrestler 37
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