Olympic Champions Helen Glover and Heather Stanning made a strong start to the defence of their World title with a dominant performance in the opening heats of the 2015 World Championships on Lake Aiguebelette in France this morning.
Two of GB's European Champion crews also shone. James Foad and Matt Langridge brushed off Romania in the second half of their men's pair heat to win. Imogen Walsh had earlier completely controlled her lightweight women's single scull heat on the alluring turquoise water of this popular venue.
Walsh said: "That was a good race to get out the way. I made good progress at the training camps and I was keen to see if I could put it into practice here and I did".
Alan Campbell, 2012 Olympic bronze medallist closed, out the morning's programme with a win in the open men's single to show his continuing return to form.
Sandwiched between these wins, Will Fletcher and Richard Chambers - the latter a 2012 silver medallist in the light men's four - showed a good turn of pace to take victory in their lightweight men's double scull heat.
Fletcher said: "That was a very good race to start with. I'm very pleased. Everything that we did at the training camps has come together".
Olympic Champion Kat Copeland and Charlotte Taylor also moved safely through in second place whilst as did birthday boy Jamie Kirkwood in the lightweight men's single. Repechages await the men's four, second this morning with only one qualifying for the quarters - and the men's quadruple scull, fourth in their heat with only two moving into the semis.
For the men's pair and single and both lightweight doubles as well aa the lightweight men's single, the depth of field means they will race quarter-finals next. Glover, Stanning and Walsh are into the semis.
Glover was satisfied with today's race. She said: ""We have come out of the training camps very well and today's race was a reflection of the training we have done. It's been a very good few weeks. Today it was good to get into the regatta and get on".
Langridge, from the equivalent men's boat said: "That was a good start. In the heats you see people put on different turns of speed at different points. It looked like Romania wanted to put in a good first 1km but they dropped off fairly quickly after that. We have four races here so we know we need to keep stepping up".
13 more GB Rowing Team crews will be in action tomorrow with coxed pair of Mat Tarrant, Nathaniel Reilly O'Donnell and cox Henry Fieldman leading off the programme at 09.00.
The headline crews look set to be the GB men's eight and the mixed para-rowing coxed four who are both reigning World Champions.
RACE REPORTS
Jamie Kirkwood celebrated his birthday by opening the whole GB Rowing Team performance here in Aiguebelette at the 2015 World Championships as well as qualifying safely for the quarterfinals in second place in his heat of the lightweight men's single scull.
He led early but was overhauled by Rajko Hrvat of Slovenia. Turkey's Ugur Ozcan moved into third place and that's the way it stayed to the line with the top three qualifying for Tuesday's next day.
European Champion Imogen Walsh raced next. She was leading as the race came up to halfway with Austria's Stefanie Borzachinni two seconds behind and Germany also challenging.
Only one could qualify for the semis and Walsh made sure by keeping her nose very firmly in front. For the second half she had clear-water over her rivals and now races a semi-final on Thursday morning. Judith Anlauf of Germany took second with the Austrian in third but both will race a repechage.
Walsh said: "It's taken a bit of getting used to this water with so many boats about. In the lightweight single scull you feel every movement.
"So that was a good race to get out the way. I made good progress at the training camps and I was keen to see if I could put it into practice here and I did".
Helen Glover and Heather Stanning put down a marker from the outset in their women's pair heat. With a quarter of the race gone they were a length ahead of the chasing Australians and South Africans. At halfway they still had clearwater over Naydine Smith and Lee-Ann Persse of South Africa with Germany moving up into third.
At the finish the duo were able to drop off their pace to the line to win in 7:04.77.
Glover said: "We have come out of the training camps very well and today's race was a reflection of the training we have done. It's been a very good few weeks. Today it was good to get into the regatta and get on".
Stanning added: "It is a very spectacular venue. In the middle of the race there is a moment when you can't hear the crowd and can focus on your own boat. At the end you can hear the crowd. It's good now to know we have four days before the semi and almost a week before the final where we can bring things to a peak".
James Foad and Matt Langridge, the European Champions, duly followed with a well-paced men's pair heat which they won in 6:33.23. They tracked the Romanian leaders for the first half before pushing ahead just before halfway and going on to win. The following Germans and Romanians did not challenge in the final 500m.
Langridge said: "That was a good start. In the heats you see people put on different turns of speed at different points. Maybe the Romanians wanted to put in a good first 1km but they dropped off fairly quickly after that.
Foad added: "We've had a good couple of camps and it's feeling pretty good here. We didn't know what to expect from some of the crews".
The lightweight men's double of Richard Chambers and Will Fletcher looked good in winning their heat. Chambers was clearly pleased afterwards and said: "In terms of what we were trying to do that was very good. We set up a good rhythm. We had two good training camps and we are putting the pieces together nicely here with still more to come.
"This is an awesome venue. Even the colour of the water is stunning. We should come here again soon for big events".
Charlie Taylor and Kat Copeland were closing quickly on the Irish in a tight finish which saw the GB combination move into Wednesday's quarter-finals of the lightweight women's double scull in second place.
Claire Lambe and Sinead Jennings led throughout with Taylor and Copeland pushing past Austria in the final 500m to take up the chase.
Scott Durant, Alan Sinclair, Tom Ransley and Stewart Innes are the newly-formed GB Rowing Team men's four who, because they finished second to Italy this morning, will now have to race a repechage to reach the semi-finals here.
The British quartet were in very close contention throughout the first half and looked as if they might close the gap on the Italians in the third quarter before the eventual winners spotted the danger and picked up the pace.
Graeme Thomas, Sam Townsend, Charles Cousins and Peter Lambert did not have the best of returns to international racing today - the first time the 2013 World silver medallists have been able to race as a crew this season because of injury and illness.
They looked a little rusty as they came home fourth in their men's quadruple scull heat which was won by Switzerland with New Zealand in second. The top two finishers move through to the semi-finals with the GB quartet now racing a repechage on Tuesday.
By contrast Alan Campbell closed out the racing programme this morning with a well-executed heat in which he held the USA's Ken Jurkowski at bay in the first half and then moved away from him to win comfortably to progress to quarter-finals on Wednesday.