Rowing: Hunter and Purchase on march as Britain show their strength

Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase prospered on a fruitful day two for Great Britain as the World Championships in Cambridge, New Zealand kicked into top gear following the previous day's high winds, which had postponed most of the action.

The Olympic champions in the lightweight double sculls dominated to progress to the semi-finals. The men's pair of Andy Hodge and Pete Reed, members of the champion British four at the Beijing Olympics, moved through to their semi-final as did double scullers Matthew Wells and Marcus Bateman.

The quadruple scull of Debbie Flood, Beth Rodford, Fran Houghton and Annie Vernon beat a German crew by one-tenth of a second in the opening race of the day to progress directly to the final.

Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins led from start to finish to win comfortably in the women's double sculls.

Britain's only reigning world champions, Alex Partridge, Ric Egington, Alex Gregory and Matt Langridge, began their men's four title defence with an emphatic win.