Rowing: Bad day for British crews

Britain's coxed four qualified for tomorrow's final at the Under-23 World Championships yesterday with an easy win, but they were the only one of four crews to survive the "second chance" repêchage round.

Disaster befell the much-fancied coxless four, winners of the Visitors' at Henley earlier this month, when they finished third. With Belarus out in front, the race for the second qualifying place was tight between Australia, New Zealand and Britain, who were less nifty than the others over the first half. The men's quadruple scullers and the women's pair, Jacqui Round and Lizzie Hodges, also failed to reach the last six.

Six further crews start in semi-finals today, among them the Imperial College pair Ben Smith and Oli Moore, the sculler Alex Gregory and the lightweight sculler Adam Freeman-Pask, all of whom have medal chances.

Gregory should move to the final with ease, while Freeman-Pask has a tough semi which includes the German Olaf Beckmann and New Zealand's Uru Storm. Richard Chambers and Chris Bartley from Oxford Brookes and Nottingham University respectively have good prospects of visiting the podium tomorrow.