Pinsent and Cracknell ease through to final

James Cracknell and Matthew Pinsent qualified for the coxless pairs final on a windy first day of the Zurich World Cup in Vienna. The Olympic gold medallists led from start to finish to win their heat easily in 7min 36.97sec.

"We had a few technical problems at the start," Cracknell said. "We weren't asstraight as we'd like but we're getting better."

The lightweight men's double scull of Tim Male and Tom Middleton and the women's quadruple scull of Elise Laverick, Lisa Eyre, Rebecca Romero and Alison Mowbray also won their heats.

Tim Foster remained the only British men's single sculler yesterday, following Matthew Wells's withdrawal with tonsillitis. Wells hopes to be fit for Henley next week as he has a good chance in the Diamond Challenge Sculls.

With low entry numbers, the men's eight, women's coxless pair and women's double scull had no heats and row today to determine lanes for tomorrow's finals. The remaining British crews must leap the repecharge hurdles today to claim final places.