On Lake Karapiro this morning the men's pair, men's lightweight four and Alan Campbell (pictured) in the men's single sculls all progressed from their semi-finals.

But Eric Murray and Hamish Bond turned the screw on frustrated GB pair Andy Hodge and Pete Reed, who suffered their 12th consecutive loss to the reigning champions.

The New Zealand pair overhauled their British rivals before the halfway point and pulled away to win by more than six seconds.

Hodge and Reed won gold in the four at the Beijing Olympics and are considered to be Britain's leading rowers, but their chances of making it lucky 13 in Saturday's finals appear to be slim.

Afterwards Reed said: "There's not much we can say about the semi-final.

"We're pretty quick. We'll have a good final, I'm sure."

Hodge added: "Every opportunity to race them is a good one.

"It was a good experience for us, we learned a lot and we're looking forward to the final now."

There were two British semi-final victories, with the lightweight four of Richard Chambers, Paul Mattick, Rob Williams and Chris Bartley continuing their good form while Campbell led from the front to defeat the Olympic champion Olaf Tufte.


Related stories
November 2010: GB pair turn the screw on Kiwis to reach rowing final
November 2010: Second world title dream still alive for rower Searle a decade after retirement
November 2010: Dream start for British rowers at World Championships
October 2010: Weather forces World Rowing Championships to be called off
October 2010: World Rowing Championships opened in New Zealand