CSB - Kerri Williams - Olympic champion.

One of New Zealand’s most successful female rowers has announced her retirement from the sport.

Kerri Williams, 30, won three Olympic medals and five senior world championship titles in a unique international career that began in 2013.

“Mind and body-wise, I’m ready for a change,” says Williams. “I probably could have kept going, but I’m satisfied with where I’m at and what I’ve achieved and it’s time to do something else.”

At the Paris Games in July, she became only the fourth New Zealand woman to win gold, silver and bronze medals at an Olympics, alongside Barbara Kendall, Dame Valerie Adams and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.