Rowan McKellar has been hailed by Dame Katherine Grainger for leading the way in British Rowing's rampant resurgence.

Glasgow star McKellar, Heidi Long, Samantha Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten powered to gold at the World Championships by more than two seconds last year, bringing an end to their successful unbeaten season.

And with Britain coming top of the medal table with a total of 12 pieces of silverware in Racice, five-time Olympic medallist and London 2012 champion Grainger believes British Rowing are back to winning ways for good.

The UK Sport chair, 47, said: "The British Rowing team, for a long period of time was very successful and consistently successful.

"And Tokyo was the first time we almost saw a slight dip in performance and it was such a surprise that so many people because we believed that they would always win.

"It was a real reminder of how hard this is. It's not easy to win Olympic medals and it's not easy to time after time to deliver.

"But what's exciting is that since those Games, there has been this incredible wave of newer, younger talent ready and prepared.

"We have had a very successful world championships and it's lovely to see the women's team leading the way.

"In fact that women's coxless four, it's a very new Olympic event, it used to be the Olympics, it was dropped after 1992 and it's come back in much more recently. It's still a young, fresh event.

"So there's always the wonder of which country is going to step out and take ownership of it.

"We always knew that the Australians would want it because they quite like dominating the men's event but Britain likes to do that as well.

"There's always this tussle and it’s just awesome to see the British women take it with such style and convincing confidence in competition.

"It's a very exciting time for British Rowing."

Grainger, who won gold in the double sculls at the London 2012 Olympic Games and is a six-time world champion, recently gave a Q&A session at RBC Headquarters to celebrate their ten year anniversary as a partner of SportsAid during SportsAid Week on #BeAGoodSportsAid Day.

SportsAid Week 2023 is an annual initiative launched in 2016, with this year’s event taking place from Monday 6 March to Sunday 12 March.

This year’s theme focuses on ‘Accessibility and Inclusion’ as the charity shines a spotlight on the country’s most talented young athletes and celebrates the incredible work being undertaken by its partners to support the future of British sport.

Grainger added: "I think what's wonderful is recognizing how many of our now very celebrated, very successful Olympians and Paralympians had help at some point from SportsAid.

"In that in that very early phase of your career, you want to make it but you've still got quite a few steps to get there.

"To get some external help is a huge thing. Financially it makes a big difference, but that feeling that someone thinks you are worth something, that you have value and your potential makes a huge difference to an athlete's life."

"Accessibility and inclusivity is something that we are pushing for in all sectors and all walks of life and want to talk about much more.

"I live and breathe sport most days and to me it's always been somewhere that I really feel I belong and I've been welcomed, but I'm also very aware that there's a lot of people who don't.

"We see so many brilliant benefits through sport, especially for young people.

"There's so much on the physical well-being side, but increasingly on mental wellbeing.

"And so we are all working hard to find and destroy these barriers for people so that everyone feels that sport is a place they can be and belong and benefit from."

SportsAid Week 2023 took place from Monday 6 March to Sunday 12 March and was a dedicated week of fun and awareness-raising based around theme of accessibility and inclusion. Please visit www.sportsaid.org.uk