This boat class was last raced at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, when it was won by British brothers Greg and Jonny Searle, coxed by Garry Herbert.

Since then interest has waned, but the entry of the all-conquering Kiwis has renewed interest in the event, and they swiftly held an insurmountable lead in their heat, coxed by under-23 world champion Caleb Shepherd.

Great Britain's Alan Sinclair and Scott Durant, coxed by Henry Fieldman, won the other heat easily from Germany on the Bosbaan Lake course, where the strong winds of the previous day were replaced by relative calm.

But Germany's Olympic champion men's eight, beaten by Britain at last year's World Championships in Chungju, South Korea, had a measure of revenge in today's heat against a newly configured British crew, moving directly through to the final on Sunday (August 31) with the fastest qualifying time.

Poland joined them after winning the other heat, where Russia, second in last year's World Cup at Lucerne, could only finish third behind the United States and will now seek to progress via the repechage.

A day after France's Stany Delayre and Jeremie Azou, unbeaten this year, had taken nearly two seconds off the world's best time for the lightweight men's double, recording 6min 08.74sec to beat the 2007 mark set in Amsterdam by Denmark, there was another standout performance from a men's pairing.

Croatia's duo of Martin and Valent Sinkovic came out of their country's world champion men's quadruple sculls of last season and have taken the men's double sculls by storm this year.

They dominated their heat to go directly to the semi-finals on Friday (August 29), where they will meet other heat winners Italy, Germany - who held off Britain - and New Zealand, whose pairing of brothers Robert and Karl Manson held off the 2013 silver medallists, Lithuania.

Lithuania’s defending champions in the women’s double sculls, Milda Valciukaite and Donata Vistartaite, made a winning start on the second day of the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam ©Getty Images

Lithuania's defending champions in the women's double sculls, Milda Valciukaite and Donata Vistartaite, have looked vulnerable this season but there was no hint of weakness as they won their heat to earn a place direct to Friday's semi-finals.

But it was the Chinese pairing of Weiwei Zhu and Yuwei Wang who recorded the fastest time of the day as they held off last year's silver medallists, New Zealand.

Other winners were the new Australian duo of Olympica Aldersey and Sally Kehoe and Poland's European champions, Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj.

Switzerland's lightweight men's pair of Simon Niepman and Lucas Tramer, who warmed up for their title defence by winning the World Cup in Lucerne, suffered an unexpected reverse as they finished third in their heat.

After letting the Irish pairing of Mark O'Donovan and Niall Kenny take an unbeatable lead in the final 500 metres, the Swiss pair came to a virtual standstill with 50m left, allowing China to come through and take the second automatic qualifying place.

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