In the women’s single sculls a dramatic final heat saw home favourite Jovana Arsic in front at the halfway mark against defending champion Karolien Florijn of the Netherlands.

Florijn produced a champions response in the second half of the race as she won in 7:18.55, the fastest time of the day in the women’s single sculls heats.

Olympic champion Emma Twigg of New Zealand won heat two in 7:23.43, while in heat four second place went to individual neutral athlete Tatsiana Klimovich, who finished four seconds behind heat winner Kara Kohler of the United States.

In the men’s single sculls reigning Olympic champion Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece was a comfortable winner of the opening heat in a time of 6:45.46.

Reigning world champion Oliver Zeidler of Germany also cruised to victory in his heat in a time of 6:44.10.

Ryuta Arakawa of Japan, Sverri Nielsen of Denmark and the Netherlands Simon van Dorp were also comfortable victors in their respective heats at the Ada Ciganlija Regatta course.

Italian Niels Torres, the reigning world champion in the lightweight men’s quadruple sculls, made it a memorable 24^th birthday as he won heat five in the lightweight men’s single sculls in 6:57.63.

The fastest time of the day came in heat three, won by Switzerland’s Andri Struzina in 6:53.47.

In the lightweight women’s single sculls winners included competitors who had not raced this season but showed they were coming into Belgrade in good shape.

Gianina van Groningen of Romania won heat four in a time of 7:35.23, despite only racing once last year, while Mexican Kenia Lechuga, who has not raced internationally this season, edged to victory in heat two in 7:37.13.

In the lightweight men’s double sculls defending world champions from Ireland Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan bounced back from a surprise defeat in World Rowing Cup III, comfortably winning heat one in 6:15.40.

The fastest time of the day came in heat five as Swiss duo Jan Schaeuble and Raphael Ahumada Ireland triumphed in 6:11.93.

In the men’s pair world champions Marius Cozmiuc and Sergiu Bejan of Romania won heat four in 6:25.66, finishing a second in front of US duo William Bender and Evan Olson in 6:26.94.

The day’s final discipline was the men’s double sculls, with Dutch duo Melvin Twellaar and Stefan Broenink impressing in winning their heat in 6:08.54, by seven seconds.

The fastest time of the day went to Romanian duo Florin Arteni and Ciprian Tudosa, who won heat one in 6:08.15, with German duo Jonas Gelsen and Marc Weber second in 6:10.06.

The final men’s double sculls heat concluded the day’s racing and was won by Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinković, the Rio 2016 champions, in 6:15.01.

Action is scheduled to continue tomorrow with more heats, including the first in Para rowing categories, as well as the start of the repechages.