Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins impress at World Cup regatta

Britain's Olympic rowing team carried on where they left off so successfully at Henley Royal regatta last week, with 11 crews cruising through the semi-finals at the final World Cup round in Lucerne. Six of them qualified in first place – the men's four, pair and lightweight four and the women's pair, quad and double scullers – raising the prospect of a possible 10-medal haul on Sunday. Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins, gold medal front-runners for the Olympics, are racing together for the first time since they won the world title last year after Watkins was sidelined through injury. Yet still they looked imperious winning the fastest semi. Also through to the final with medal chances are the men's eight, quad and double, and the women's eight and lightweight double. Clash of the day will be the first meeting this year of Britain's Andy Hodge and Peter Reed and New Zealand's Hamish Bond and Eric Murray in the pair. Only inches separated them at last year's world championships, when the Kiwis took gold with their 12th consecutive victory over the Brits. With just six weeks until the world championships in Bled, Britain's team is poised to qualify crews for 13 of the 14 Olympic events, assuming single sculler Alan Campbell, and Zac Purchase, the world and Olympic champion in the light double event, recover from sickness.