Mohamed Sbihi is the only member of the British team that won gold in Rio de Janeiro competing in the Serbian capital and he was joined by William Satch, a gold medallist in the men's eight at Rio 2016, Matthew Tarrant and Stewart Innes on the Sava Lake.

Racing in the first of two heats, The Netherlands was the closest challenger to the leading Russian crew.

However, at 42 strokes per minute, Great Britain came charging through at the end to sneak ahead of one of three Russian boats.

The British team progressed straight to the final on a day where conditions significantly affected the competition's schedule.

The afternoon's racing was abandoned at lunchtime, with strong winds picking up after the morning's heats and causing damage to the start pontoon.

Races scheduled for this afternoon have now been rescheduled for tomorrow (May 6).

Earlier today, Switzerland's Jeannine Gmelin proved too strong in her women's singles sculls heat.

She beat a field including Rio 2016 silver medallist Vicky Thornley by eight seconds to move straight into the final.

Gmelin was soon joined by the reigning European Champion, Magdalena Lobnig of Austria, after she was victorious in the second heat.

Damir Martin from Croatia, the silver medallist in the men's single sculls at Rio 2016, was a hot favourite in the men's single sculls, but finished second in his heat.

Martin crossed the line just fractions of a second behind eventual champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand at the Games and was once again forced to settle for second today as he was outclassed by Switzerland’s Nico Stahlberg.

Olympic silver medallists Gary and Paul O'Donovan moved into the semi-finals of the lightweight men's double sculls after taking their heat by a narrow margins. 

The brothers finished strongly over the last 500 metres to pip the Czech Republic at the line by 0.06sec and record the fastest time across all three heats.

In the men's quadruple sculls Poland, who narrowly missed out on a medal at Rio 2016 when they finished fourth, claimed victory in heat two. 

The Polish squad comfortably secured their place in the final at the expense of Estonia, who pipped them to bronze last summer.

Racing is set to continue tomorrow with this afternoon's rearranged heats, repechage and semi-final action.