KAT COPELAND and Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell produced dominant displays as North-East rowers enjoyed a generally successful opening day at the European Championships in Poland.

Copeland, who is the reigning Olympic champion in the lightweight double sculls, teamed up with new partner Charlotte Taylor for the first time in a competitive setting, and the pair cruised to a convincing heat win that secured an automatic place in tomorrow's semi-final.

With Tees RC’s Copeland looking to lay down a marker at the start of a season that will culminate in the World Championships, which double up as a qualification regatta for next year’s Olympics in Rio, the British duo established their dominance at an early stage of yesterday’s race, and eventually finished more than seven seconds clear of Russians Natalia Varfolomeeva and Olga Arkadova.

Reilly-O’Donnell won a World Championship gold as part of the men’s eight last summer, but the Durham oarsman has been moved to the flagship men’s four for the Europeans.

Rowing with Alan Sinclair, Tom Ransley and Scott Durant, Reilly-O’Donnell also booked an automatic spot in tomorrow’s semi-finals, as he helped his crew dominate a strong heat that also featured boats from Spain, Holland and Germany.

The format of the fours competition was changed at the last minute, with three heats compressed into two, but Reilly-O’Donnell said: “That put a bit more pressure on us, but we just got on with it.”

There was further success for Chester-le-Street’s Will Fletcher, who is forming a new-look men’s lightweight double with Olympic medallist Richard Chambers.

The duo confirmed their status as strong medal hopes with a dominant heat display that enabled them to pull more than four seconds clear of Dutch pairing Tycho and Vincent Muda.

Durham’s Jess Eddie and Richmond’s Zoe Lee were part of a women’s eight that suffered some pre-race drama when an illness to first-choice cox Zoe de Toledo resulted in Morgan Baynham-Williams jetting in from England at the last minute.

The eight performed creditably, but were unable to overhaul a strong-starting Russian crew and eventually finished two-thirds of a length adrift. They will race in tomorrow’s repechage in an attempt to qualify for Sunday’s final. “Some good stuff, and some stuff to work on,” said Eddie. “We’ve got the rep now to work on it.”

Yarm’s Tina Stiller will also be in repechage action after she was part of a quadruple sculls crew that pushed world champions Germany all the way before eventually going down to a line-up that featured three –quarters of the German crew that set a world’s best time at last year’s World Championships in Amsterdam.