Great Britain’s lightweight men’s four of Mark Aldred, Chris Bartley and Peter and Richard Chambers showed they mean business as they easily progressed through to the semi-finals on day two of the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.
Three of the four are already Olympic silver medallists in this event with Aldred a newcomer for 2014.
And they dominated their heat, beating nearest challengers the Netherlands by almost two seconds to cross first in 6:13.68 minutes to book a slot in Friday’s semis.
However the open weight men’s double scull of John Collins and Jonny Walton will have to race a repechage after they missed out on progression to the semi-finals by four hundredths of a second.
With only one available semi-final spot from their heat, Germany came through in 6:19.28 to pip them on the line.
And it was a similar outcome for the men’s eight who took on Olympic champions Germany in their heat with again just the one spot up for the grabs in Sunday’s final.
A second-half rally had appeared to put the reigning men’s eight world champions in contention but the Germans held their nerve, meaning Great Britain and third-placed France face off in the repechage on Friday.
In the international class events, there were two further heat victories for British boats with Alan Sinclair, Scott Durant and cox Henry Fieldman making Friday’s final of the men’s coxed pair, and the lightweight men’s pair of Sam Scrimgeour and Jono Clegg also moving into the semi-finals.
© Sportsbeat 2014