EVESHAM rower Will Tew goes for gold tomorrow after his Great Britain eight stormed into the final at the World Junior Championships in Austria.

King Edward's School, Cheltenham, clubmate Josh Pendry found the going tougher in the pairs and will have to race for 13th-24th positions after missing out on a semi-final slot.

Tew's Great Britain eight stormed home second behind New Zealand to grab their place in the six-boat medal race-off.

The crew had earlier launched their medal bid in Linz with a solid third place in their opening six-boat heat, charging from fifth at 500m to second by the three-quarter way mark.

Italy forced their bows three feet in front on the line to just deny Great Britain second place with America a length in front in pole position, and Spain, the Czech Republic and Croatia trailing.

In their next qualifier, 17-year-old Tew's crew needed to finish in the top two to make the final against the Kiwis, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Austria.

And things didn't look so good early on, as the Czechs led through 500m by two-thirds of a length from New Zealand who had six feet on Great Britain.

Through half way, the gap to the leaders had grown to nearly a length with the Kiwis half a length to the good and the Danes and Austrians some two lengths adrift.

But with the pressure on, Great Britain struck back in the third quarter as the Czechs suddenly began to feel the heat.

New Zealand pushed through to hit the front by 1250m and Great Britain weren't far behind, slicing through the tiring east Europeans to hit 1500m a quarter of a length up.

And they powered away from the Czechs in the run-in to finish more than two lengths clear in five minutes 51.27 seconds, with New Zealand three-quarters of a length up in first and Denmark fourth and Austria fifth.

Italy and Spain, who Great Britain beat in the opening heat, join them in Sunday's final from the second reopechage alongside heaty winners Aerica and Germany.

But clubmate Josh Pendry and Oxford partner Stewart Innes will have to race for a minor place after finishing fifth in their pairs quarter-final.

The Great Britain duo finished fourth in their opening heat five lengths back on winners Slovenia, with Turkey two lengths up in second and Latvia third three-quarters of a length up.

They then needed to finish in the top three in their six-boat quarter-final to make the semis, but found themselves at the back of the field going through the quarter-way mark.

Pendry and partner were still a fraction down on Hungary at halfway, with Germany out of sight at the front of the field and Romania, Latvia and Georgia battling for the other two qualifying slots.

Great Britain pushed through the Hungarians in the next 500m and held them off to the line by six feet, but were unable to get back into the qualifying frame, crossing in seven minutes 13.40 seconds, with Germany first in 6.59.67 beating Romania by a length and a half and Georgia feet back pipping Latvia for the last semi-final slot by eight hundreds of a second.

Pendry now races another six-boat qualifier to decide the make-up of the C and D finals for 13th-24th.

The duo are just two of eight Evesham Rowing Club racers to earn Great Britain caps in the last two weeks, with twin brothers Ben and John Farrar racing to victory for the Under-16 eight over France in Valenciennes, Ruth Whyman and Yasmin Tredell competing in the Great Britain Under-16 girls' double scull in the same Anglo-French match, and Rory Sullivan and Oli Staite in the four helping Great Britain land the overall title at the 12-nation Under-18 European Coupe de Jeunesse team competition in Cork, Ireland.