FIVE times Olympic gold medal winner Sir Steve Redgrave hailed the school which helped propel him to international glory as he officially unveiled Marlow's new £4million sports centre on Thursday.

The state of the art complex at Great Marlow School, where the legendary rower was a pupil, has been named The Redgrave Sports Centre.

From tomorrow it will be open to the public as well as a generation of youngsters at the school.

Sir Steve, from Marlow Bottom, studied at Great Marlow in the late 70s and early 80s when the school only had 25 rowers - compared to 160 today.

He said: "I'm very proud and honoured to have my family name attached to this sports centre.

"Four generations of my family have lived and are living in Marlow."

His two elder sisters and niece and nephew attended Great Marlow School and said the years he spent there were defining.

He paid tribute to his former teacher Francis Smith, one of the special guests on the day, who he credited with getting him into rowing.

"I came into the school heavily dyslexic, struggled with education, I was at the bottom of most sets of the different subjects," he said.

"But I loved sport and I was a reasonable sprinter. There was one teacher who went the extra mile in some ways, the head of the English department in the school, Francis Smith. Certainly Francis was the guy who guided me through my school life."

"He had two loves, one was rugby and rowing. He used to go around to a few individuals and ask if they wanted to row.

"Having that opportunity to go out on the river during school time was an absolute no brainer."

He recalled Mr Smith's efforts and the time he dedicated to helping the young rowers. The rowing great hailed the new sports centre but said it was characters like his former teacher who were crucial to success.

He said: "The facilities here are fantastic, and it's great to have them open to the community and school that's really important. But it's the people involved who make the dream come alive. The enthusiasm is definitely here and it has to carry through.

"I think the school is on the verge of being even more successful than it is now."

Mr Smith said Sir Steve appeared to have the right physical and athletic attributes as a youngster to do well.

"He was a very big boy, a good swimmer and an athlete," he said.

Mr Smith was modest about his role in Sir Steve's rise to stardom and played it down but he did admit he had experienced pride witnessing his success over the years.

He said the centre was "very nice".

Chair of Governors for the last 10 years Keith Goulding said: "The new facilities and the opportunities available for Great Marlow students and the local community are going to be amazing.

"We are incredibly proud of the Redgrave Sports Centre and are confident that it will inspire a new generation of young people to excel in their sports, and inspire others to become active participants in sport."