Katherine and her partner Anna Watkins opened the defence of their world title in fine style, cruising to an opening heat victory in Sunday’s first day of racing at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia.
This win marked the twelfth successive victory for the duo and puts them into the Friday’s semi-final.
From halfway on, Katherine and Anna sat ahead of Germany and USA at a comfortable stroke rate, and clearly with plenty more in the tank for later in the week. Despite this, they still were over two seconds faster than each of the other three opening heat winners – Australia, world silver medallists from last year; 2009 world champions Poland; and New Zealand. Afterwards, a pleased Katherine said, “it’s good to be back doing what we love best – to get in front and do the business”, while Anna added, “and we’re in fighting form”.