Veronica Wall in action.. Photo supplied.Ashburton’s Veronica Wall has made it to the A finals of the women’s single sculls at the World Rowing Junior champions in Racice, in the Czech Republic.

She will take a lane alongside five other top scullers, including reigning champion Esther Briz Zamorano of Spain in the final at midnight tonight (NZ time).

Ashburton’s second rower at the world event, Mollie Gibson, will be competing with her crew in the B final of the quadruple sculls.

That race is 8pm (NZ time).

Ashburton College rowing coach Justin Wall is also travelling with the New Zealand team as specialist coach.

Several world best times were recorded on the Racice regatta course on semi-finals day.

The weather has been great with temperatures starting out in the low 20s Celsius though a swift tail wind at the end of the day made for challenging conditions.

In the women’s single sculls first semi-final, Maria Sol Ordas of Argentina set a world best time of 7.31.50, joining with Italy’s Greta Martinelli and Tabea Kuhnert of Germany to progress to the A final.

In Wall’s semifinal, Briz Zamorano took an early lead, while in second was China’s Jiaqi Zou with Romania in third. Briz Zamorano was then able to get a small margin over Zou, who was eventually overtaken by Wall and Romania’s Tabita Maftei.

Maftei pushed up into second, but a bad stroke with 50m left to row saw Wall take the advantage and the Romanian fell back into third.

In the quadruple sculls B final, Gibson and her crew will face off against crews from Russia, Italy, Denmark, the USA and Lithuania.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 12 August 2018