The Herald on Sunday

Smooth sailing for McKellar in Munich eases pain after

- WILL JENNINGS IN MUNICH

ROWAN McKELLAR reckons radical restructur­ing within British Rowing is already reaping rewards after a memorable Munich morning at the European Championsh­ips.

British stars racked up a redhot four gold medals yesterday morning – including three in a row – in the women’s and men’s four, women’s quadruple sculls and men’s eight events at the city’s 1972 Olympic Regatta Centre.

Team GB endured a torrid time at the Tokyo Olympic Games last summer as just one silver and bronze medal marked their worst Games return for almost half a century.

But widespread internal change in the months that followed looks to have steadied the ship as Britain returned to the internatio­nal top table on a golden morning in Germany.

Glasgow star McKellar, 28, helped fire the women’s four crew to the summit of the podium and believes times are changing with two years to go until Paris 2024.

McKellar, who joined forces with Heidi Long, Samantha Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten to topple Ireland in the final, said: “There’s a lot that’s gone on since Tokyo.

“There’s a lot more structure now – people are in places now whereas in the year before the Olympics, there were a lot of people going and coming in.

“It’s good to have someone that’s got their role as one job and commitment. That’s really good and everyone’s bought into that as well.

“We knew that we didn’t have our best time in Tokyo – we all knew we were better than that.

“We knew that with a few more years that will definitely come and I think we’re managing that – starting this year.”

Team-mate Shorten, 28, added: “There has been a change.

“Louise [Kingsley, director of performanc­e] is very on top of everything. You know that she’s very organised and very clear on what she’s wanting from the team and from her

staff. Louise herself has also had a lot to do with rowing – she’s been a rower herself and she’s been a coach, director on her own, so she’s done a lot and I think that’s really shown this year and supported us.”

The women’s four saw off Romania in Thursday’s heat to enter Saturday morning’s final as the unequivoca­l team to beat.

And they held their nerve when the pressure was on to cross the line in 6:50.92 and beat Ireland, Romania, Denmark, the Netherland­s and Poland to help cap a Saturday to savour for Britain’s rowers in the historic German city.

The quartet will now turn their attention to next month’s World Championsh­ips in Racice, where they will bid to continue the momentum heading into the two years before Paris.

McKellar knows there’s still considerab­le work to do and insists they will not rest on their laurels in pursuit of more major medal success.

She said: “We didn’t have our best start, but we never normally come out of the blocks that fast.

“We know that it will take a while to chug through I think we got into some really good positions towards the end, they came back on us again and that’s something we need to work on, our sprint finish.

“I think we still held out own – we had a solid enough bit in the middle to mean it would be too much for them to come back.”

 ?? ?? Rowan McKellar helped Great Britain’s women’s four to gold
Rowan McKellar helped Great Britain’s women’s four to gold

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