Rowing: Coxless four cruise through to final

The lightweight single scullers Jo Hammond and Zac Purchase also qualified for finals tomorrow, while the heavy scullers Annie Vernon and Colin Smith and the pair of Tom Broadway and Phil Simmons will contest the B finals for places 7 to 12.

Steve Williams, Peter Reed, Alex Partridge and Andy Hodge had three quarters of a length of clear water behind them after 500 metres, an already familiar racing pattern. The Canadians closed swiftly on the British, who held on to secure a three-quarter length margin at the line. "I could see there were several boats fighting it out behind us," said bow man Steve Williams. "We had to pick up our pace but we didn't need to go into a full dress rehearsal for the final."

Smith led for 450m before the Olympic champion Olaf Tufte fronted the charge which left him behind. Smith finished 20 seconds behind Tufte, a lesson in how much he has to do to carry out his aim of winning the event in Beijing in 2008.

Purchase again excelled by finishing third, stepping up from junior to under-23 champion and senior finalist in one year. Hammond, silver world medallist in the lightweight single scull last year, took third place to challenge again for the title.

Vernon, a competing reserve who came through the "world-class start" programme, has got herself into the top 12 in the world. The men's pair, too, did well to get as far as they did considering that they were dropped from the eight at the beginning of the month.