With three Olympic silver medals, four World Championship gold medals and six consecutive British titles to her name, Katherine Grainger's CV is as long as the River Thames.

The 33-year-old is the mother figure of a youthful women's Great Britain squad, and has this year taken this decision to fly solo in the single scull.

Grainger had immediate success in her new class with victory at the first World Cup event in Banyoles but she found the going tough against sterner opposition in the second and third World Cup stages in Munich and Lucerne and finished a respectable fourth on both occasions.

And while Grainger has 12 years of international rowing under her belt, the Scot admitted her change of discipline has given her a new lease of life.

"It's almost like being a novice again," said Grainger. "I've got that same excitement and that same nervousness and insecurities just because I don't have experience in this class.

"It's really good to be feeling that all again and I will carry these feelings on to next year.

"It was a welcome surprise to win in Banyoles but my coach and I knew it was a weakened field and I was under no illusion that it was going to be like that the whole way through.

"I'm still down on the top scullers with my times but I know I'm competing against girls who make single sculling their life's training and I'm dipping into it for this season."