ALL three British senior crews in repechage action yesterday made it through to tomorrow's semi finals of the World Championships at Strathclyde Park, Motherwell.

Chris Long, who stepped into the place vacated by singles sculls champion Peter Haining after the Scot opted to move up in weight and compete in Atlanta, finished second to Estonian Roman Lutoskin.

Long led over the first 500 metres with victory in mind but when the Estonian took up the challenge at the half way stage, he opted to conserve his energy and settle for second place.

Sculler Susan Appleboom took a step closer to what promises to be the most interesting final of the championships when she finished second to Hungary's Monika Remsei.

With four in the race and three to qualify, the competition ended when Icelander Anna Steingrimsdottir dropped 10 seconds off the lead by the halfway mark and survival for the others became a formality.

Easy promotion gives Appleboom the chance to recover before taking on Romanian Constanta Burcica, the 1993 gold medallist, and Saran Garner, of the US, in her bid for a medal.

Garner reputedly lost over two stone in weight over nine months to convert from heavy to light weight sculling and in her heat beat the Romanian and Appleboom by an incredible 16 second margin from a breakaway start.

Also through to the semi finals is the new lightweight pairing of Jason Keys and James Brown, enjoying their first World Championships.

They were Britain's only senior winners of the day after setting a brisk pace. Eager to make amends for a damaging nervy start in their heat for which they paid dearly they set out to control the repechage opposition and left the course well pleased with their performance.