Twelve Great Britain crews will compete in the finals of the rowing World Cup in Munich on Sunday and there is a good chance of winning four or five gold medals after their lead crews navigated Saturday’s semi-finals with few difficulties.

The women’s quad, world champions for the past three years, had booked their final place on Friday – as had the men’s eight – and they were joined by the men’s coxless four, who took a step closer to gaining revenge on the Olympic course after winning their semi-final easily over the Netherlands and Italy, two of the three boats that finished ahead of them in last year’s World Championships at the same venue.

The four of Tom Lucy, Steve Williams, Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs-Hodge qualified for the final almost five seconds faster than the next best boat and surely nothing less than gold will do. Alan Campell will also be aiming high after winning the first semi-final of the single sculls. Campbell, from Coleraine in Northern Ireland, fought off a stern challenge mid-race from Lassi Karonen, of Sweden.

He was pushed to a winning time of 7:39.26, nine seconds faster than Ondrej Synek, of the Czech Republic, who won the third semi-final, and 11 seconds better than Olaf Tufte, the Norwegian winner of the second. In the absence of Mahe Drysdale, the world champion from New Zealand, those will be Campbell’s biggest rivals.

Britain will be the ones to watch in both the lightweight men’s finals. The four, world champions last year, looked smooth and controlled in winning their race, although they face a tough challenge from Germany. In the lightweight double scull, Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter won for the third day in a row and with Denmark, the world champions, choosing unsuccessfully to try their luck in the heavyweights class this week, the British entry will have as good a chance as any of winning gold.

In that heavyweight double scull class, Steve Rowbotham and Matt Wells made a strong start in choppy conditions to set the tone and win their semi-final by four seconds. They will be one of the favourites today after France, world champions in 2006 and second last year, came fourth.

It seems wrong to spoil the golden mood by talking of anything other than ultimate ambition but Sarah Winckless and Elise Laverick, despite timing their push to perfection in the double scull to snatch third place from the United States, will struggle to stay with China’s two boats in the final, both of whom finished an enormous distance ahead of the field in the second semi-final.

The women’s eight may also find their final tough after earning their place through coming second in a repechage.

The day will begin with two British entries in the lightweight women’s single sculls final, which is not an Olympic class. Mathilde Pauls won the first semi-final, before Andrea Dennis came second in her event with a similar time to Pauls.

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