Colin Smith of Oxford and Tom James of Cambridge became a headline crew at the World Championships at Eton today when they raced to a place in Saturday’s final of the men’s pair.

James was ill earlier in the week but the duo looked to be getting back to their best as they came home second only to the Australians in 6:23.87.

Both were clearly delighted by their progress and have made light work of burying the fierce rivalry which existed between the crews who competed in The 2006 Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging.

"We trained very hard for six months to beat each other but the World Championships are a common goal and we are very similar. We took similar courses at Uni and followed similar training schedules so we were probably the best two people in the GB team to put together in a boat", explained Smith.

In today’s race, according to the duo, everything mostly to plan. "It was very bumpy and rough out there so we thought we were either rowing very badly or conditions were worse than we thought. It wasn’t until the last 300m that I was sure that we would be in the first three", said Smith.

James says that they will now rest as much as possible before Saturday’s final. "We’ll still be paddling but we’ll be relaxing, watching lost of DVDs and trying to rest as much as possible. The men’s pairs is one of the hardest events so we’re really pleased to be in the final."

In today’s other events Jamie Schroeder, of Oxford, missed out on the finals in a tough semi of the men’s single scull which was won by Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic.

His American team-mate and fellow Oxford Blue, Mike Blomquist, meanwhile, was involved in the most dramatic race of the day when the Americans dead-heated for third place with New Zealand in the men’s four semi-final. Under the new FISA (world rowing federation) rules the crews then faced a re-row which the USA won and now progress to the final.

Britons Andy Hodge and Peter Reed, of the 2005 Oxford Blue Boat, are both safely through to Saturday’s final of the same event. With Steve Williams and Alex Partridge, they dominated their semi-final from the outset.

Canada, featuring Barney Williams and Scott Frandsen, were not so lucky. They were a fourth in the same semi-final as the British and will now contest a B Final.

Tomorrow’s semi-final racing features Cambridge Blues Tom Stallard, Kieran West and Josh West in the British men’s eight which is coxed by Oxford Blue Acer Nethercott. Bastien Ripoll (France and Oxford), Sebastian Schulte, Thorsten Engelmann and Bernd Heidicker (Germany and Cambridge) will also be in action in the men’s eight semi-finals.