GB ROWERS FIND THEIR FORM DESPITE THE HEAT
Olympic Champion Helen Glover and her pairs partner Polly Swann were amongst the five heat winners for the GB Rowing Team on the opening morning of the World Championships in Chungju, South Korea.
The team brushed aside high temperatures and humidity to take further top spots in the lightweight men's and women's double sculls , the men's quadruple scull and from Alan Campbell in the men's single scull.
Edinburgh's Swann, a senior World Championships debutante, said: "I thought we had a pretty solid first kilometre today and then the Romanians gave us a bit of a push early in the second half but I thought we were very much in control".
After the race, Penzance's Glover, meeting the British Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, HE Scott Wightman, who had turned out to support the team, said: "It is very exciting to race here in Korea and to find such a fantastic venue".
Second place finishes were also enough to see the men's four - whose blistering last 500m sprint took them from fifth to second in a matter of moments - and the two lightweight single scullers through to the next phases.
With six semi-final and two quarter-final places won today there are eight more crews in action tomorrow, including the first race for Tom Aggar in the para-rowing men's single scull and the opening races for the men's and women's eights, the women's single and double sculls, the men's double scull and the lightweight men's four and pair.
From today's programme the men's pair and women's quadruple scull will contest repechages on Tuesday, having raced today in events where only the heat winner went onwards.
The event is being televised by BBC TV in the UK:
Saturday 31st August
07.00 - 09.00 on the red button and website;
15.00 - 16.30 highlights show on BBC One
Sunday 1st September
07.00 - 09.00 on the red button and website;
15.00 - 16.30 highlights show on BBC Two
RACE REPORTS
Jamie Kirkwood opened the GB Rowing Team's account at the 2013 World Championships in his heat of the lightweight men's single scull. He reached halfway with a decent lead over Peter Galambos of Hungary.
In the third 500m, the Hungarian put his foot down to overhaul Kirkwood who still qualified comfortably for the quarter-finals.
Ruth Walczak was in action next in the equivalent women's event. The Rochdale sculler traded the lead with Austria's Michaela Taupe Traer just before half-way with two semi-final slots on offer. Dropping the rest of the field they duo kept up the pace until the final 20 strokes with Austria taking the honours at the line, Walczak second in 7:53.08.
James Foad and Oli Cook had their first competitive race in a men's pair here this morning and with the Kiwi World and Olympic champions drawn in the same heat, they just needed to get a good race under their belts.
Job done with a strong second place, climbing up the field from fourth at the quarter-race mark, and they now have a second chance through the repechages.
Brothers Richard and Peter Chambers were focussed off the start and took an immediate lead in their lightweight men's double scull heat. The Lucerne bronze medallists were ahead by half a length at halfway but were challenged throughout the first half by Greece. In the third 500m the British siblings began to pull away leaving their Greek counterparts to knock back their stroke rate and save energy for the repechages. So, GB through in 6:34.83.
"We pretty much expected them to be with us to 1k and then we moved on a bit in the third 500m, we waited to see if they would stick with us", said Peter Chambers.
"That was a good start and something we can build on", said Richard Chambers.
Kathryn Twyman and Imogen Walsh put down a marker in their opening heat of the lightweight women's double scull. They were neck and neck with the New Zealanders but slightly behind for the first half of the race before coming through with a push in the final 300m to win in 7:07.23.
The men's four put in the most dramatic final 500m of the day when they sprinted from fifth to second to qualify for the semi-finals here as the temperatures soared and the early morning clouds scattered. Strokeman Mat Tarrant picked up the rate and picked off the crews ahead one by one except for the USA who won in 6:00.69 to GB's 6:02.64. Germany were third.
By contrast the GB men's quadruple scull of Graeme Thomas. Sam Townsend, Charles Cousins and Peter Lambert were in a tight race with the Estonians all the way down the course with the British quartet coming through when it counted in the second half to take the win in 5:48.03. Both crews qualified comfortably ahead of the remainder of the field.
The British women's quadruple scull were fifth at half-way in their race and despite hauling themselves up into third at the finish, only one qualified for the final from this race so a repechage now awaits for Kristina Stiller, Rosamund Bradbury, Monica Relph and Lucinda Gooderham.
Alan Campbell took his heat head-on from the outset today, gradually building a big lead and then coasting to the line ahead of Australia and Bulgaria.
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