Munday joined from England and GB Hockey where she had been chief executive for the past 10 years.

She has overseen a golden era for hockey with highlights including Great Britain's women securing their first Olympic title at the Rio 2016 Games and the men’s team finishing fourth at London 2012, their best Olympic finish in a quarter of a century.

Other notable high points were the successful hosting of the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup in London and a huge increase in participation since London 2012.

With 29 years of working in the sports sector in a variety of roles, Munday brings a wealth of experience to UK Sport – the nation’s high-performance sports agency. 

It is claimed she joins at an exciting time to lead UK Sport and the high-performance system into an Olympic and Paralympic Games year, as well as to implement a new strategy for elite sport in the UK beyond Tokyo 2020, as outlined earlier this year.

Munday will take up the role in the autumn, succeeding Liz Nicholl who in November of last year announced plans to step down.

Nicholl is due to depart in July, so there will be a member of the UK Sport team appointed on an interim basis as the accountable officer until Munday starts. 

"Sally Munday is a wonderful successor to Liz Nicholl as CEO of UK Sport, as we embark on our ambitious new strategy for high performance sport in the UK," said Katherine Grainger, chair of UK Sport.

"Sally has led a sport that’s not only excelled on and off the field of play at elite and grassroots level, but also delivered an impact both domestically and internationally. 

"Her expertise and strong leadership will be invaluable as well as her passion and vision.  

"The Board and our UK Sport team are all looking forward to working with Sally to ensure we continue to inspire the nation through Olympic and Paralympic success."

Discussing her appointment, Munday said: "The past decade has been such a successful period for Olympic and Paralympic sport in this country and I am absolutely delighted to be given the opportunity to lead UK Sport and follow in the footsteps of Liz Nicholl.  

"I know from personal experience that the UK Sport team has played such a key role in supporting the national governing bodies and their athletes in what has been an unprecedented period of success both in terms of medals and bringing major sporting events to this country.

"I am extremely excited to join UK Sport at this time, not only in the lead in to Tokyo 2020 but also the opportunity to implement the new UK Sport strategy leading to Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024. 

"I love the ambition of the new strategy, both in continuing to support our athletes to light up the stage to make our nation proud, but also realising the social and community impact that is possible through our Olympic and Paralympic role models and the work that they and our national governing bodies can do."

During her time at UK Sport, Nicholl has played an integral role in the success of Team GB and Paralympics GB as one of the architects of world-class programme support and a performance-focused investment strategy.

"I am really delighted with Sally’s appointment," Nicholl said.

"She is highly respected in the industry, has experience across all areas of our business and will be able to build on the success of UK Sport and the high-performance system to date and drive the delivery of the new strategy. 

"I look forward to working with her over the coming months to enable a smooth transition."

Nicholl recently announced her intention to stand for the position of President of the International Netball Federation (INF).

She was nominated by England Netball, where she was chief executive for 16 years before joining UK Sport. 

The former England international held a leadership role in the Government agency for two decades, spending nine as chief executive.

INF President Molly Rhone is due to step down after the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool in July, following the conclusion of her term.