TASMANIAN Olympic hopeful Ella Flecker has made a successful start to her rowing world championship campaign.
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Competing in the lightweight women’s double scull with Victorian Alice McNamara, the Huon rower finished second behind Canada to book a place in the quarter-finals along with Germany and Greece.
Flecker and McNamara sat second for most of the race at picturesque Aiguebelette in France to become one of five automatic qualifiers from the Aussie team.
The men’s four and quadruple scull won their respective heats while Victoria’s 2013 world champion Kim Crow continued her domination in the women’s single scull.
Meanwhile, the men’s pair and lightweight women’s double scull both finished second in their heats to secure a spot in their respective quarter-finals and avoid a trip to the repechage.
In the lightweight women’s single scull, Huon’s Georgia Nesbitt, who last year won bronze at the under-23 world championships, paced her race well to finish second behind Brazil’s former world champion Fabiana Beltrame and will compete in the repechage on Tuesday.
In the men’s quadruple sculls, the crew of David Crawshay, Karsten Forsterling, Cameron Girdlestone and David Watts coached by Huon’s John Driessen claimed victory, leaving 2014 world champions Ukraine to face the repechage.
Huon’s Kerry Hore and her quad scull crewmates were due to begin their campaign late on Monday after what high performance director Chris O’Brien called ‘‘a solid start’’.
Meanwhile, Tamar rowers Henry Youl and Oli Cook secured more Tasmanian success at the under-21 Trans-Tasman regatta in New Zealand.
In a men’s quad also featuring Sean Murphy and Jacob Bicknell, they surged away from their Kiwi rivals.
New Zealand struck back in the women’s quad, against an Aussie crew featuring Tamar’s Caitlin Bloomfield, and both the women’s and men’s fours.