In the first men’s single sculls semi-final, South Korea clocked a time of 7min 18.74sec to finish ahead of Thailand, second in 7:20.66, and Indonesia, third in 7:24.43.

Joining the trio in the final will be Kazakhstan, India and Iraq, who came first, second and third respectively in the second semi-final.

Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Yakovlev and India’s Dattu Bhokanal started to pull away from the field inside the final 300 metres with the former ultimately coming out on top in 7:14.38, 0.11 seconds ahead of the latter.

It left Iraq’s Riyadh Al-Khafaji and Uzbekistan’s Shakhbo Kholmurzaev to battle it out for the coveted third place and it was Al-Khafaji who maintained his composure in the sprint to take it in 7:16.01.

Chinese Taipei’s Yi-Ting Huang was home first in the opening women’s single sculls semi-final, clocking a time of 8:01.86.

Iran’s Mahsa Javar was the runner-up in 8:05.08, while Kazakhstan’s Svetlana Germanovich came third in 8:07.12.

The second semi-final saw home favourite Kim Yeji edge Vietnam’s Hue Pham Thi in a sprint to the finish. 

Kim triumphed in 7:57.64, 2.89 seconds ahead of Pham Thi who was followed across the line by Indonesia’s Dewi Yuliawati in 8:03.84.

Qatar’s Tala Abujbara had to settle for fourth place despite holding a podium position for much of the race.

Her time of 8:05.03 is the fastest of all the qualifiers for the B final and she is still in contention for the seventh Rio 2016 qualification spot.

The finals are scheduled to take place tomorrow.