Timson is due to step down from his post having been named as the performance director at the Lawn Tennis Association, with Warr set to take up her new role in October.

The Australian has been serving as the deputy director of performance at the organisation, the country's high performance sports agency, since 2013.

UK Sport claimed her appointment followed an “extensive open recruitment process” which aimed to find a candidate to “maintain momentum after Rio 2016".

Warr has worked at UK Sport since 2005 and will now be tasked with implementing critical strategic investments to be made by the Board in December, when around £350 million ($467 million/€419 million) of National Lottery and Government funding is expected to be invested in Olympic and Paralympic sports for Tokyo 2020.

“I am incredibly honoured, privileged and excited to have the opportunity to lead the high performance system into the next stage of its evolution,” said Warr.

“In order to maintain success at the highest level you need to learn faster than the opposition and make less mistakes by drawing on the collective might.

“My ambition is to ensure we fully harness the huge wealth of brilliant ideas and expertise we have inside and also outside our world-class system to help us achieve even more in the future.

“With just over a week to go until the start of Rio 2016, I am confident our highly talented athletes, coaches and expert support staff, working in partnership with the British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association, can once again deliver inspirational medal winning moments to make the nation proud.”

UK Sport are hoping the British Olympic team at Rio 2016 will surpass the 47 medals achieved at Beijing 2008, the country’s best-ever medal haul in an overseas Games.

Their Olympic medal target ranges at 47 to 79, with anything above 65 meaning they would surpass the record haul set at London 2012 - 29 golds, 17 silvers and 19 bronzes - and make Britain the first hosts to increase their tally at the next edition of the summer Games.

UK Sport is expecting at least 121 Paralympic medals, beating the London 2012 total of 120 - 34 golds, 43 silvers and 43 bronzes.

The range for British Paralympians has been set at 113 to 165.

Warr will be the recognised strategic high performance lead for UK Sport after Rio 2016, with preparations for Tokyo 2020 becoming the focus.

She previously worked at the Australian Institute of Sport before moving to take up a role as world-class development manager at British Diving and Swimming.

In 2005, she joined UK Sport as a performance programme consultant.

Warr was later promoted to the head of performance pathways where she pioneered Great Britain’s talent identification and development programme.

“Chelsea’s wealth of experience in elite sport, her in-depth knowledge of the World Class system and her unique blend of front-line and strategic achievements made her the panel’s unanimous choice,” Liz Nicholl, chief executive of UK Sport, said.

“She is perfectly placed to take up the challenge as she has already made a significant contribution to the transformation of the British high performance system in the past decade and more recently, the creation of the UK’s ambitious high performance strategy through to Tokyo 2020.

“Chelsea is an exceptional talent and I am confident that she has the experience, drive and commitment to work in partnership to lead the UK high performance system to even greater success.”