The Canadians qualified for the final from heat two after beating the record time set by the United States moments before in the first heat.

Canada crossed the line in 6 min 00.13sec to post a time 0.22 faster than their North American rivals.

The US, last year’s gold medallist, have also gone through to the final after winning heat one in 6:00.35.

French identical twins Thibaud and Guillaume Turlan were in dominant form in the men’s pairs.

A top three finish in any of the three heats was good enough to advance to the semi-finals, but the twins won the second race in a time of 6:20.06.

Serbia’s Viktor Pivac and Martin Mackovic, the reigning under-23 world champions, won the opening heat in 6:20.14 while the American pairing of Alexander Richards and Liam Corrigan claimed victory in the third with their time of 6:25.380.

Competitors in the women’s single sculls were also aiming to qualify for a semi-final berth.

Those who finished in the top two of the four heats were guaranteed progression and Norway’s Thea Helseth edged Russia’s Ekaterina Pitirimova to win heat one in 7:42.040.

Elodie Ravera-Scaramozzino of France won the second in 7:43.010 but Lovisa Claesson of Sweden also progressed by virtue of finishing second.

Germany’s Juliane Faralisch prevailed from heat three in 7:42.720 while Pascale Walker took first place in heat four in her time of 7:37.920.

Second place finishes in heats three and four were won by Ukraine’s Kateryna Dudchenko and American Emily Kallfelz respectively.

The competition is scheduled to last until Sunday (July 23).