Leander Club in Henley has appointed only its third woman captain.

Lola Anderson, 25, follows in the footsteps of double silver Olympic medallist Debbie Flood, who was the club’s first female captain in 2012, and Olympic silver medallist Vicky Thornley, who was captain in 2018.

Anderson, who lives in New Street, Henley, said: “I am honoured and excited to step into the role of captain at Leander Club.

“After being fortunate enough to have been supported by Leander for years, I am looking forward to giving whatever I can back to the club.

“A successful team comes down to club culture and the happiness of the team. I would like to encourage and build connections between the club athletes at Leander and the squad athletes at Caversham.”

Anderson joined Leander in 2020 at the height of the covid pandemic and won a place in the GB senior squad in 2021.

She was in the women’s quad which won the world championships in Belgrade last year, securing Britain’s first gold in the event since 2010.

Her appointment comes as Leander’s athletes are gearing up for the new rowing season which starts with the first world cup in Varese, Italy, in late April.

Anderson said: “We don’t have expectations about the results. We want to finish this year knowing we’ve had our best row and given our best performance on the day.

“I want to end the season with something to be proud of and the peace of mind that we have done our best.”

Anderson is in contention for a seat in the women’s quad at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer. If select-ed, she will represent team GB in a category where they are yet to win a gold medal.

She grew up in Richmond and first started rowing aged 13 while a pupil at Surbiton High School. She was in-troduced to the sport by her father Don, a South African rower.

After initially not being interested, she was captivated by the 2012 Olympics in London.

She wrote in her diary that her biggest aspiration was to become a rower for Great Britain and win Olympic gold before ripping the page out and throwing it in the bin because she was embarrassed.

Anderson said: “I was thinking that it was stupid and worthless and embarrassing to even sort of admit that’s what you were dreaming about.”

At Surbiton she was coached by Bill Lucas, an Olympic finalist in the GB men’s double scull at London 2012, who she describes as “inspirational”. In 2016 she was in the GB junior quad which won a silver medal at the world championships in Rotterdam.

Anderson went on to study at Newcastle University where she read English literature and continued to row.

Under head coach Angelo Savarino, she helped Newcastle to win gold in the eight and the quad at the university championships.

In 2019, while at university, Anderson was in the women’s quad that won gold at world championships in Florida.

In 2021 she won bronze in the single sculls at the world cup regatta in Italy and went on to win the Princess Royal Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, becoming only the second British woman ever to do so. In 2022 she won gold with the women’s quad at the European championships in Munich.

Following her U-23 success, Anderson was surprised to find out that her father had recovered her childhood diary note.

She said: “He gave it back to me, saying: ‘You wouldn’t have believed that you would have been capable of this when you were younger but you’re here now’. That kind of reignited a bit of a drive in me to sort of see it through.”

Her father passed away shortly afterwards.

Additional reporting: Robert Treharne Jones