Coxless fours become fourth British boat into World Juniors finals

THE men's coxless fours were the standout performers for Great Britain on day three of the World Junior Rowing Championships in Brive-la-Gaillarde.

The quartet of Andrew Holmes, Jason Philips, Will Perham and Constantine Louloudis sailed through their semi final with Australia nearly three seconds back in second.

The coxless fours became the fourth British boat to seal a place in Saturday's finals, after the men's eight, men's coxed four and women's coxless four qualified earlier in the week.

Elsewhere, there was disappointment for Rachel Gamble-Flint who was overtaken in the final metres of her semi-final to finish fourth - only good enough for a B final berth.

The women's quadruple scull of Rosa Atkinson, Helen Preston, Eleanor Piggott and Phoebe Lucas also suffered the agony of fourth place in their semi final and will line up in the B final tomorrow.

And GB Rowing team manager John Layng was full of praise for his young rowers' semi-final displays and admitted he was keeping his fingers crossed for tomorrow's finals.

"It's been a great achievement getting four boats into the finals," said Layng. "It will be nice if we can come away with some medals.

"It was a really exciting performance from the junior men's four today. And the junior women's

quadruple scull put in a feisty performance despite not qualifying - you could see they gave it their all."