London, Jul 29 (IANS): The New Zealand rowers had a strong start to their Olympic regatta, setting a new world and Olympic record on the first day of the competition here.

The men's pair of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray set a world record time of 6:08.50 to secure their place in the semifinals, Xinhua reports. Bond and Murray have been unbeaten since 2009.

In the men's double sculls, world champions Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan set a new Olympic record of 6:11.30 in the heats to claim a place in the semifinals.

Mahe Drysdale, the bronze medalist in Beijing, easily won his heat in the men's single sculls and will move through to Tuesday's quarterfinals.

Women's single sculler Emma Twigg also had a comfortable win in her heat, progressing to the quarters.

The World Champion women's pair of Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown were the first New Zealand crew in action at the rowing on the opening day of the Games and eased through their heat to be second behind Australia.

Both teams advanced straight to the final, joining the top two teams from the first heat - Helen Glover and Heather Stanning from Britain and Sara Hendershot and Sarah Zelenka from the US. The remaining teams will battle it out in the repechage for a berth in the final.

The men's quadruple sculls team of Michael Arms, Robbie Manson, John Storey and Matthew Trott finished last of the four teams in their heat but will have another chance to progress in the repechage.

The women's quadruple sculls team of Fiona Bourke, Sarah Gray, Eve Macfarlane and Louise Trappitt finished third in their heat.