ZAC Purchase cruised into tomorrow's quarter-finals at the world rowing championships in Munich - and then said he wished it had been tougher.

Fellow Worcester rower Matt Beechey, in his 10th world championships, almost made it directly through to the final of the lightweight pairs chasing home Australia in his six-boat heat.

And Evesham RC's Alex Gregory also goes again in the repechage after narrowly losing out to France for the second qualifying slot in the men's quadruple sculls.

"We thought the New Zealanders might give it a bit of a go, but they didn't seem to want to make a race of it," said 21-year-old Purchase after his opening lightweight doubles heat with GB partner Mark Hunter.

"It would have been good to have had a bit of a real challenge, but we did what we had to do - qualify in pole position."

Last year, the King's Worcester product lifted the world singles title on the London 2012 lake in world record time and, after two silvers and a bronze in the Olympic class double at this year's three World Cup regattas, he has every chance of climbing back on the podium in Germany.

"We led from the first stroke and with the first three going through, the Kiwis decided to sit about a length and a half down and not have a go at us," said Purchase.

"It was a good confident opener, controlled and nice and relaxed. We killed the race off early, which was a good confidence boost.

"We had clear water after 400 metres and we were down to about 34 strokes a minute at the end, well in control.

"Over the last six weeks, we've done a massive amount of work on the River Rhine at Breisach in Germany and then in the foothills of the Italian Alps and it showed today the way we just held them at arm's length.

"Now we're going to do a bit of a wind down on the rowing machines, then a couple of recovery paddles before the quarters."

GB went through 500m 2.3 seconds up on the Kiwis and held the distance at cruising pace through the 1,000m and 1,500m marks.

And they crossed in six minutes 35.86 seconds to win by a length and a quarter from a fast-finishing American double, who overhauled New Zealand with 250m to go.

Worcester RC's Beechey, 30, and 72kg pairs partner Daniel Harte are another medal chance after gold, silver and bronze at this year's three World Cup regattas.

And though disappointed not to win their heat, it often backfires waiting six days for the final.

On paper at least, they will have no problems getting through Friday's repechage comfortably after setting the fourth fastest heat time.