Racing continued today in Brest, Belarus, with a couple of Canadian lightweight crews earning spots in tomorrow's semi-finals.
The lightweight men's pair of Eric Woelfl of St. Catharines, ON, and Stuart Taylor of Brockville ON, was first in its rep in 6:52.50.
"We had a much better race today in the rep than in yesterday's heat," said Taylor. "We were feeling more confident coming out of the starting gate and attacking the middle 1000 metres of the race. We're looking forward to tomorrow's semis and improving on today's performance."
Russia was edged out by Canada in the last part of the 2000-metre race, and finished second in 6:54.31 - top two from this rep moved to the semis.
Lightweight single sculler Catherine Bouchard-Pilote of Boucherville, QC, was second in her rep in 8:01.08. Austria won in 7:58.12, and an American sculler was the third qualifier from this rep in 8:05.67.
"Today's race was way better than yesterday - I was able to execute what I wanted to do and I am looking forward to my semi tomorrow," said Bouchard-Pilote.
In an exhibition "race for lanes" the Canadian women's eight was sixth today.
Yesterday, the Canadian men's pair, men's coxed four, men's lightweight quad, and lightweight women's double advanced after solid performances in the heats.
A thunderstorm yesterday afternoon caused racing to be suspended and the heats in four boat classes to be re-scheduled for this morning (which did not affect any Canadian crews). Organizers were expecting more storms this afternoon so the schedule was condensed. Racing continues through to Sunday.
Follow the live results on www.worldrowing.com