World champion men's double scullers Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan have stormed home to win their heat at the Olympic Games rowing regatta.
Cohen and Sullivan were lying third with 500 metres to go, when it looking like their British and Argentine opponents, who were neck and neck, would battle out top spot.
But in the thrilling charge to the line, the New Zealanders hit the front to pip the British combination of Bill Lucas and Sam Townsend by 0.64sec.
Their time of 6min 11.30sec was the fastest of the three heats by five seconds.
With the top three going straight to the semi-finals, Argentina's Ariel Suarez and Cristian Rosso also avoided a repechage.
Earlier in the opening session of competition on Dorney Lake in Buckinghamshire on Saturday, another of New Zealand's world champion crews, Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown, made it to the final of the women's pair.
However, they were upstaged in their race by Australians Kate Hornsey and Sarah Tait, who beat them into second place by more that 5sec.
With two team going through from each of the two heats, Haigh and Scown were never really in danger of missing out.
They took time to get going but were firmly ensconced in second spot before the halfway stage.
The other heat was won by the season's form crew of Britons Helen Glover and Heather Stanning in an Olympic Games best time of 6:57.29.
Glover and Stanning, who are striving to be the first women to win rowing gold for Britain, crossed just under a length ahead of Americans Sara Hendershot and Sarah Zelenka.
The women's quadruple sculls combination of Eve Macfarlane, Fiona Burke, Louise Trappitt and Sarah Gray face a repechage on Monday after finishing third in their heat.
NZN