Olympic record for Helen Glover and Heather Stanning in rowing pairs

Great Britain's Helen Glover and Heather Stanning set a new Olympic record with a dominant victory in the first heat of the women's pair. 

The duo, who won gold in all three World Cups this season, clocked a time of six minutes 57.29 seconds.

They romped home by a length from the United States with both pairs progressing to Wednesday's final.

Britain's men's eight came second in their heat behind Germany, and must contest repechage to make the final.

Stanning and Glover have been unbeaten since taking silver in the World Championships last year behind New Zealand.

The duo employed their usual tactic of going out hard at a sun-soaked Eton Dorney, moving one second clear of the field after the first 500m.

They then eased off and controlled the race in front of packed grandstands to finish ahead of the US, Olympic champions Romania, Germany and Argentina. 

Glover said: "Plan A is always to expect to race to the line, and plan B is to conserve what we can. In the last 500m we rowed like how we felt we wanted to row.

"We are going to sit with our feet up today, and in the next couple of days we'll keep ticking over by doing some training, and the final will be the peak of our season."

In the other women's pair heat, Australian duo Kate Hornsey and Sarah Tait eased to victory over world champions New Zealand, with both duos progressing to the final.

Britain's men's eight were racing with their current crew for the first time this season after Constantine Louloudis recovered from a back injury.

World champions Germany went out hard to lead by a length at 1,000m - the halfway point - but Britain responded well, with Louloudis upping the stroke rate.

But it was not enough, with the home favourites closing to within half a length and crossing the line second in a time of five minutes 27.61 seconds, with only the Germans going through.

The US won the other men's eight heat to progress straight through to Wednesday's final.

It was a disappointing performance from the British women's quad, silver medallists in Beijing, who trailed home fourth behind winners Ukraine and must now contest the repechage.

BBC