New Zealand crews progressed to the main final of the men's coxed fours and the semifinals of the men's lightweight four at the under-23 rowing world championships in Belarus today.
The coxed four of Tufe Sele, Tobias Wehr-Candler, Adam Tripp, David Mabbott and Ivan Pavich made the final with an encouraging start-to-finish victory in their semifinal at Brest.
They got into stride early to establish a three-second lead over Croatia by the 100m mark and held that over the latter half of the race.
The men's lightweight four of Finian Scott, Curtis Rapley, Graham Oberlin-Brown and James Lassche qualified for the semifinals by finishing second in their heat after a good tussle with the Chilean four.
The New Zealanders led over the first half of the race but the Chileans came back strongly to move from third and take the lead by the 1500m mark.
In the women's eight exhibition race - a prelude to an identical line up in the six-boat final - the New Zealand crew showed they will be a serious threat for a medal by finishing second behind the United States and ahead of France, Germany, Belarus and Canada.
