Annabelle and Jess, silver medallists at the 2023 and 2022 World Championships, have drawn lane one for their heat at the Vaire-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, east of Paris.

The two Rowsellas, both members of the Tokyo 2020 gold medal winning four, are strong favourites to win given their pedigree and the rankings of the other crews in their heat.

The first three finishers will qualify for the A/B semi-final with the rest to race the repechage. From Greece, Spain and China, the Greeks should prove to be their strongest challengers.

Annabelle and Jess have been training well and are ready for their quest for gold. They should also be able to feed off the positive vibes in the Australian Team after the first day of races.

The Australian pair is the first of four crews to race in their heats on Sunday. Those other events, in order of scheduled time, are the Men’s Pairs, Women’s Four and Men’s Four.

The electric atmosphere at the regatta venue that holds 15,000 seated spectators plus 5,000 standing should also lift them all, judging from the feedback of those who raced on day one.

On Saturday, Australia’s Tara Rigney led the way. She was the first Australian to race and won her heat of the single sculls, in which she won bronze at the last 2022 and 2023 world titles.

By winning her heat in which the first three finishers qualified for the quarter-finals Tara, a Tokyo 2020 Olympian in the double sculls with Amanda Bateman, easily qualified for the next round.

“I was definitely stoked to get my first race and took a moment to enjoy it,” Tara said after her win.

“I think our theme for this whole regatta is to enjoy what we're doing and race freely. So, it was nice to just get out there. I think it was nice to get in front and then sort of control the race and yeah, I was just looking around really enjoying it.”

Also on Saturday, the new Australian women’s doubles sculls crew of Amanda and Harriet Hudson placed second in their heat, pipped by France after leading most of the way.

However, despite their loss, Amanda and Harriet still showed enough to indicate they are serious medal contenders, so long as they qualify for the A-Final via the semi-finals.

Amanda and Harriet were also lifted by the atmosphere, even if much of the cheer in their race came from the local French fans cheering their nation’s crew on to a come from behind win.

"It was an absolutely electric atmosphere," Harriet said.

"It feels like you're racing for medals ... to have that energy was really cool and next time we can pretend that they're saying ‘Allez Aus,’ and they're going for us."

In women’s quad sculls, the crew of Caitlin Cronin, Laura Gourley, Rowena Meredith and Ria Thompson placed fifth in their heat. They will now fight for a final berth in the repechages.

Aussie rowers in action on Sunday 28 July:
6:50pm AEST – Women’s pairs heats: Annabelle McIntyre, Jessica Morrison
7:20pm AEST – Men’s pairs heats: Patrick Holt, Simon Keenan
8:40pm AEST – Women’s fours heats: Olympia Aldersey, Lily Alton, Molly Goodman, Jean Mitchell
9pm AEST - Men’s fours heats: Fergus Hamilton, Alexander Hill, Tim Masters, Jack Robertson

Rupert Guinness

McIntyre and Morrison set to fly after Rowsellas take off