Rowing: Hyde expecting tough A Final win in Austria

Rotorua rower Claudia Hyde has qualified for the A Final with her New Zealand quad team at the 2013 Under-23 World Rowing Championships.

Rotorua's Jeff Francis is also competing at the U23 world champs in Austria, which started on Wednesday, and is set to race in the semifinals of the men's quad event tonight (NZT).

Hyde's New Zealand U23 women's quad team placed fourth in their heat on Wednesday before storming back into contention for the A Final with a first-place effort in the repechage on Thursday.

The repechage is a second-chance race for teams who finish outside the top two in the heats.

Hyde's team got off to a great start in the repechage, recording a stroke speed of 44 strokes per minute across the first 50m.

The New Zealand quad held on to win the 2000m race in a time of 6m 31.98s, almost two seconds ahead of Romania.

The women's quad, made up of Hyde (Rotorua RC, Waikato RPC), Hannah Osborne (Waikato RPC, Te Awamutu RC), Allie Smith (Waikato RPC, Waikato RC) and Olivia Loe (Southern RPC, Avon RC), will race in the A Final early tomorrow.

"It should be tough," Hyde said. "First is definitely our aim."

Meanwhile, Francis and the New Zealand U23 men's quad finished second during their heat on Wednesday and have qualified for the semifinals.

Racing in lane six in their heat, they finished two seconds behind Switzerland in a time of 5m 46.60s, which gave them the fourth best time out of the three heats and 17 crews.

Their semifinal is set to take place about 8.30pm tonight (NZT).

The U23 World Rowing Championships run until late tomorrow night. Races are being held at the Linz-Ottensheim course in northern Austria.