Partridge, Hodge, Williams and Reed were unbeaten in 2006

Steve Williams, Alex Partridge, Peter Reed and Andy Hodge made light work of their heat to secure a place in Saturday's semi-finals in Austria.

New men's pair Colin Smith and Matthew Langridge won their heat while Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham came home first in their men's double scull heat.

Alan Campbell began the defence of his single scull title by winning his heat.

The women's quadruple scull, featuring Katherine Grainger, is yet to compete with heats starting on Saturday, alongside those for the men's and women's eights.

The lightweight men's four of Richard Chambers, James Lindsay-Fynn, Paul Mattick and James Clarke held off Denmark to win their heat.

It will get harder from here but it shows that our crews are capable of success David Tanner GB Rowing performance director

Alison Knowles and Natasha Howard made a storming start, coming home first in their heat of the women's pairs, then took third place in their quarter- final to book a place in the semis.

Sophie Hosking led from start to finish in lightweight women's singles to qualify for Saturday's semi-finals.

Meanwhile Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter followed up their morning win in the heats with a similarly impressive victory in the quarter-finals of the lightweight men's double scull, ahead of Hungary and the Czech Republic.