KEY POINTS:
New Zealand hopes of a full turnout in Saturday's finals day at the Shunyi rowing course were dashed yesterday.
Of the five crews challenging on semifinals day, three advanced to their finals - single sculler Mahe Drysdale, double scullers Rob Waddell and Nathan Cohen and coxless pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle - where they will be joined by double scullers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell and coxless pair Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles.
However, women's single sculler Emma Twigg and the defending world champion coxless four missed out.
Of the three still alive, Bridgewater and Twaddle were the most impressive, finishing second in their semifinal to Canadians David Calder and Scott Frandsen, clocking 6min 36.05, 2.03s behind but with the first three in all semifinals making it through, they were in good shape.
Drysdale and the double scullers were third in their races, and that's bad news as it means they will be in potentially difficult outside lanes for Saturday.
Triple world champion Drysdale almost provided the shock of the day, for the wrong reasons.
He got across the line a blink ahead of fast-finishing Greek Ioannis Christou out in lane one. There was a mere .45s separating the pair at the finish.
His biggest rival for the title, Czech Republic sculler Ondrej Synek won the race in 7:03.57, with Britain's Alan Campbell, who began well, slipped back then recovered, grabbing second.
Waddell and Cohen only had .83s to spare in their semi, holding off Croatians Ante Kusurin and Mario Vekica with precious little up their sleeve.
Twigg was shattered at the end of her semifinal. The former world under-23 champion was in the frame for most of her race, which was dominated by the favourites for the title, Belarus' Ekaterina Karsten and Bulgarian Rumyana Neykova.
Twigg was on their shoulder through the first half but things tightened up in the last 500m. Twigg was third going into that final leg and was nailed just before the line by Poland's Julia Michalska.
The margin was only .05s, the tightest of the day.
The New Zealander cut a disconsolate figure in her boat as she contemplated a B final instead of squaring off with the big guns on Saturday.
The coxless four have had a difficult season, struggling to recapture the form which made the top of the world last year.
Favourites Britain dominated their semifinal but it was close behind them. New Zealand settled into fourth but left themselves too much to do in the run home.
The French quartet beat them to the line by only .58s.
And that summed the day up for New Zealand - with the exception of Bridgewater and Twaddle, it was too close for comfort.
