Repechage races were held on day three of the World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette ©Getty Images

It was a day of second chances at the World Rowing Championships in France today – with repechage races in a number of disciplines giving crews another opportunity to progress in the competition and keep their hopes of qualifying for next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro alive.

Boats which just missed out on automatic progression from the heats had to do it all again in Aiguebelette and, while there was joy for those who grabbed a second bite of the cherry, they will inevitably not be as fresh as those who had already advanced to the latter stages.

Two British crews were among those to make full use of the repechage, with their open men’s quadruple scull and men’s four going through.

The scull of Graeme Thomas, Sam Townsend, Charles Cousins and Peter Lambert were fourth for much of their race before pacing their final 500 metres to perfection to edge Ukraine on the line.

It was a day of second chances at the World Rowing Championships
It was a day of second chances at the World Rowing Championships ©Getty Images

Britain are the reigning world silver medallists but have been prevented from racing together this season until this week due to illness and injury.

“We are not the finished article yet at this regatta," said Thomas.

“We have another training day tomorrow and there is more to come but that was a big step.

"That was huge."

The four of Scott Durant, Alan Sinclair, Tom Ransley and Stewart Innes trailed Argentina in the first part of their race but came through to take the lead just before halfway, building a length over the field by 1500m.

Sinclair said: “We set out to win the repechage and a new focus was to develop the rhythm that we had at training camps but which was lacking in the heat.

"We felt we did that today and could enjoy the boat speed."

Elsewhere, five German boats successfully came through the repechage rounds, while it was also a good day for The Netherlands and Ukraine who qualified four boats each.

South Korea, Canada and hosts France qualified three boats each.



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