The World Rowing Junior Championships started today in Plovdiv ©Getty Images

The 2021 World Rowing Junior Championships got underway today in the Bulgarian city Plovdiv, starting with heats in the single sculls, double sculls, quadruple sculls and men's pair.

Italians Ferdinando Chercia and Federico Ceccarino finished first in their heat of the men's pair in front of Poland to qualify for the final, while Americans Wilson Morton and Emmett Infante won heat two with Spain in second.

The third seed was won by Andrei-Petrisor Axintoi and Iliuta-Leontin Nutescu of Romania, who posted the fastest time, while Germany took the final spot.

With only one team qualifying from each of the four heats in the men's quadruple sculls, Germany made sure of their place in the final in heat one, winning by a considerable margin.

Joining them in the next round are Russia, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

Poland's Mikolaj Kulka and Daniel Galeza qualified from the heats of the men's double sculls in first with Greece taking the second spot in the first race.

France, Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland join them in the final.

Belarus' Viktoryia Vasilyeva and Viyaleta Dzmitryieva were clear winners of heat one in the women's double sculls, making them the first of four qualifiers, and were shortly joined by heat two winners Gaia Chiavini and Jeanne Roche of France.

Greece's Styliani Natsioulas and Aikaterini Gkogkou took over Ireland late on in heat three to qualify and Italians Alice Bussacchetti and Edda Volponi were the final qualifiers.

Eight rowers qualified for the men's single sculls while four qualified for the women's single sculls.

Isaiah Harrison of the United States won the first heat of the men's event and was joined in the next round by Danish rower August Wisholm.

Heat two saw Germany's Oliver Holtz cross the line first with Marco Prati of Italy finishing second, while Lithuania's Povilas Juskevicius and Jakub Wozniak of Poland were first and second in heat three.

Aaron Andries of Belgium and Dutch rower Lucas Keijzer were in the top two in heat four.

Russian Marina Matveeva was the first qualifier in the women's single sculls, winning heat one, with Latvia's Laine Rumpe claiming the win in heat two.

Swiss rower Aurelia-Maxima Janzen claimed victory in heat three and finally in heat four, Greece's Evangelia Fragkou sealed the last spot with a win in the fourth heat.