Britain's Andrew Triggs Hodge, Moe Sbihi, George Nash and Alex Gregory sent a buzz through the rowing family with a European best time of 6min 49.08sec, chased home by a Greek crew which also beat the old mark, while Germany's eight, beaten by Britain at last year's World Championships, underscored their renewed ambition with a new European mark of 5:28.89.

Their compatriots in the men's double sculls, Hans Gruhne and Stephan Krueger were pressurised to a European best of 6:11.56 in their heat by the highly promising new British pairing of John Collins and Jonathan Walton on a day when tail winds helped fast times.

The outstanding individual performance of the opening day came from Marie-Anne Frenken, who won world gold in the Netherlands lightweight quadruple scull last year, and who took more than four seconds off the European best in her lightweight single scull heat when she clocked 7:42.24.

Marie-Anne Frenken, pictured far right with her Dutch colleagues after winning the world lightweight women's quadruple sculls last summer, took four seconds off the European best in Belgrade in the lightweight single sculls ©AFP/Getty Images

Other European best times came from Britain's world champion women's pair, Helen Glover and Polly Swann, who clocked 7:09.44, and the Belarus women's quadruple scullers, including the 42-year-old former world and Olympic single sculls champion Ekaterina Karsten, who won their heat in 6:17.59.

Britain's Olympic champion Kat Copeland was a nervous heat winner in the lightweight women's double sculls in what was her first race since she partnered the now retired Sophie Hosking to earn gold at London 2012.

Copeland, now teamed up with Imogen Walsh, commented: "I am glad to get it over with really to be honest. I was a bit nervous".

Walsh added:  "It was a bit of a step into the unknown as it's our first race of the season and our first race together".

But the new British combination will find the going testing against the Italians who won the world title last year, Laura Milani and Elisabetta Sancassani, and the in-form German pairing of Lena Mueller and Anja Noske.

Belgrade, which was able to host these championships despite the serious recent flooding in Serbia, has attracted a record entry of 36 nations.

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