The weather may have been more suited to his rowing prowess, but an Olympic legend stepped out of his comfort zone today to help promote sport and an active lifestyle to primary school children.

Five-times Olympic gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave played indoor cricket and tried his hand at salsa dancing with pupils from Whartons Primary School, in Otley.

Sir Steve is an ambassador for the Matalan Sporting Promise, a programme working in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust to support sport and PE activities in school. “It’s all about smiles on faces and even I had a smile on my face, maybe with some red cheeks as well, but it’s about having fun,” he said.

“It’s about engagement and enjoying the process so they’re not scared of it and they’ll get involved. I was talking to one of the teachers who said ‘if we just introduced it to Year 6, they wouldn’t do it, especially the boys’.

“But now they see younger students doing it they think ‘that looks fun’, and get involved.”