Rower McKellar aiming to break World Championships duck using Munich momentum

Rowan McKellar is backing her crewmates to build on their Munich momentum as she bids to break her World Championship duck, writes Paul Martin.

The Glasgow rower, 28, was part of the women’s four who earned European gold last month as Britain’s rejuvenated rowers put the disappointment of last summer’s Olympics firmly behind them.

McKellar has a best finish of fifth from three previous World Championship visits but believes a podium place is within the grasp of an ever-improving crew when they head to Racice in Czech Republic.

“You can never be too confident going into it but we can’t complain with our results so far,” she said.

“We just have to make sure we’re stepping on as we know our opponents will be doing just that.

“Munich was a lot of fun and we are confident off the back of some good races but it will feel a long time away by the time we get there and a lot can change – we’ve not raced some of the [World Championship] opponents either.

“I’ve never had a world medal but we’ve progressively got closer to the medals without getting in them, so that’s what we’ll be aiming for this year.”

McKellar also took home silver from Germany in the eight, one of four medals won by a British women’s squad thriving under the guidance of Australian coach Andrew Randell.

Britain are not sending a women’s eight to the World Championships, allowing the Scot to arrow in on her ambitions in the four, and she hailed Randell’s impact since taking charge earlier this year.

“He’s done a really good job bringing the squad together as one team,” she said.

“That has made a huge difference in the atmosphere at training and made everyone step on together rather than against each other, trying to better each other.

“We’ve moved on as a really good squad as well as stepping up the training massively, which has shown in results.”

British Rowing is the governing body for the sport and is responsible for the development of rowing in England and the training and selection of rowers to represent Great Britain. The GB Rowing Team is supported by the National Lottery Sports Fund. To find out more, and to follow the ongoing World Championships in Racice, head to https://www.britishrowing.org/