All Day 1 racers safely through in Munich

All Day 1 racers safely through in Munich

The first heats for small boats at the World Rowing Championships in Munich on Sunday should have been pretty much routine for the New Zealand crews, amongst the favourites in these events. And so they proved.

First up was lightweight sculler Duncan Grant, the man to beat in international lightweight single sculling this season. He made swift work of his heat to progress to the Semi-Final, taking control early on and cruising ahead to win by almost six seconds. New girl on the block Emma Twigg led her heat of the Women's Single Scull convincingly, moving away from the field with Czech Republic athlete Mirka Knapkova and cruising through the first test of her first elite single sculling world championship in some style. The Under 23 World Champion now progresses to the Quarter Final.

Reigning champion in the Men's Single Scull, Mahe Drysdale, showed he will be on the pace and will take some stopping as he aims for a third title in a row. He clocked a very fast time of 6 minutes and 54 seconds in his heat. His major rivals, who also cruised through, will undoubtedly have taken a second look at that time.

Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles also won in the fastest of the heat times to progress, though they had to row through the USA pair and hold off the fast Romanians Georgeta Damian-Andrunache and Viorica Susanu. Their major rivals from China could well be keeping their gunpowder dry, having trailed in several seconds off the Kiwi pair's pace and behind the Canadians in their heat. George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle won their heat as well, going quicker than the fancied Aussie pair and up there with the fastest times.

Caroline and Georgina Evers Swindell were beaten to the line by Laverick and Bebington of Great Britain, but also made it through to their Women's Double Scull Semi-Final comfortably. Into the Quarter-Final, via third place, was the Men's Double of Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott, though the top three crews were significantly ahead of the field and the finishing order for the top three was relatively unimportant.

On the pace of the world champion Great Britain crew and looking strong again was New Zealand's Men's Coxless Four. One of only three crews to go sub-six minutes, they also progress to the Semi-Final stage of their category. Since leaving the Mighty River Power High Performance Centre for the European tour, they have continued to pick up speed and will have high hopes of a medal of some sort as the finals loom closer.

ends

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