WORCESTER rower Sarah Cowburn stormed into the semi-finals at the world junior championships in China, leading all the way to the line in her six-boat heat.

King's School, Worcester, rower Andrew Finlay also looks a likely medal contender on the Beijing Olympic course after helping the Great Britain men's eight chase home Germany today in the second fastest heat time.

In a commanding performance, Cowburn blasted through the first 500m mark a length-and-a-quarter up on Russia's Ekaterina Yurina with Japan's Chazato Hoshizawa feet back and Croatia's Marcela Milosevic a further three-quarters of a length back.

With the Hong Kong and Moldova scullers dropping out of contention, the 18-year-old GB singler moved out to two lengths at the 1,000m mark and three lengths at 1,500m, cruising home in total control to win by 10 seconds from the Russian in eight minutes 11.22 seconds.

Croatia finished third another nine seconds back with Japan fourth, Hong Kong fifth and Moldova bringing up the rear.

With the first two through to Friday's semis, Cowburn was fifth fastest of the six direct qualifiers, with Germany and Norway going through in heat one and China and Lithuania going through from the second heat.

But the other two heats were far more competitive for the qualifying slots, and the Worcester Rowing Club racer, who is coached by Paul Sterckx, can have good hopes of making Saturday's final and challenging for a medal.

Finlay's GB eight have to race the second chance repe-chage tomorrow after Germany beat them to the sole direct qualifying slot in their four-boat heat.

But it was a confidence-boosting row by the four-man and his GB crew, who were quicker than second heat winners New Zealand by some two seconds.

Finlay's boat went through the 500m mark just six feet down on the Germans and the same margin up on China with Romania half-a-length back.

The Germans pushed out to a length lead at half-way, but GB were now two-thirds up on the Chinese and held their advantage to the line.

They raced home 1.3 seconds up on the hosts in six minutes 01.96 seconds with Germany a length-and-a-half in front and the Romanians well beaten.

Tomorrow they need to finish in the top four in a six-boat qualifier to make Saturday' s final, where they face China and Romania again, plus USA, Russia and Italy.