But one world champion and an international medallist will have to watch the race from the bank. Only the first three in the semifinals qualified for the final.
Duncan Grant (Central Regional Performance Centre), the 2007 world lightweight champion, was fourth in 7min 11.02sec and world under-23 medallist Graham Oberlin-Brown (Waikato RPC) was fifth in the same semifinal 7min 43.05sec.
New Zealand has four of the world's top 10 single scullers in its ranks and they will all be fronting up in the final at Lake Ruataniwha.
World champion Mahe Drysdale (Auckland) won his semifinal yesterday in 7min 03.14sec, the fastest time of the day.
He was followed home by world under-23 champion Joseph Sullivan (Central RPC) in 7min 06.19sec and 2007 world under-23 champion Storm Uru (Southern RPC) in 7min 09.82sec.
Former world and Olympic champion Rob Waddell (Waikato RPC), who won the other semifinal in 7min 08.50sec, was followed home by his Olympic Games double sculls partner Nathan Cohen (Southern RPC) in 7min 12.
Beijing Olympian Peter Taylor (Southern RPC) was third in 7min 21.79sec.
Cohen has won silver medals at the under-19 and under-23 world championships.
New Zealand rowing guru Fred Strachan has been impressed by the form of his protege, Hamish Bond (North End), and believes he can win red coats in his four premier events.
"The Southern RPC crew look to have the edge over Waikato in the eight," Strachan said.
Strachan expects Bond to have a comfortable win in the pair with Jade Uru and in the coxless four.
His hardest race will be in the quadruple sculls.
The Otago Rowing Association is taking the rare step tonight of presenting Bond with an official Otago blazer in acknowledgment of his world fours title in 2007.
The Otago pair of Gretchen Brownstein and Renee Perrie won their women's club double sculls semifinal by five seconds in 7min 43.78sec and will start as favourite for tomorrow's final.
The Royce Wilson-coached North End combination of Sonya MacDonald and Rachael O'Connell, who finished third in their heat in 7min 48.35sec, and the Wanaka club crew of Georgina Galloway and Saasha Bruce, who finished fourth in 7min 51.84sec, have also made the final.
The Royce Wilson-coached North End men's club double scull of Curtis Bush and Alistair Bond had the fastest semifinal time of 6min 57.82sec.
They beat the Otago combination of Richard Wilden and Thomas Stott, who finished 6.28sec behind the North End combination in 7min 04.10sec.
The Otago University pair of Fergus Fauvel and Albert Hanson also qualified for the final when finishing fourth in 7min 08.15sec.
Fauvel also qualified for the final in the men's club single sculls when he won his semifinal in 7min 39.51sec. Wilden joined him when finishing fourth in 7min 45.85sec.
William Hyndman (University), third in the other semifinal in 7min 44.08sec, will join them in the final.
North End's O'Connell ( 8min 29.29sec) and MacDonald (8min 33.63sec) reached the women's club single sculls final when they finished second and third in the semifinals.
Michael Goldsmith (Port United) has the chance to win another medal in the final of the men's lightweight double sculls with Alex Sims.
Goldsmith (38) won a gold medal in the event with Union-Wanganui in 2000 and a silver and bronze medal in the next two years with the Nelson club.
