SEVILLE, Spain -- Steve Tucker qualified for the lightweight sculling final at the World Rowing Championships on Thursday, finishing second in the semifinal race.

Tucker, of Mooresville, Ind., rallied from fourth place to finish 2.34 seconds behind the winner Sam Lynch, and qualify for Saturday's final.

Lynch, the defending champion, beat last year's other medalists in a tough semifinal.

He led throughout the 2,000-meter race on Seville's Quadalquivir River, defeating last year's silver medalist Stefano Basalini and bronze medalist Michal Vabrousek.

Basalini, Ingo Euler, Anthony Edwards, and Hitoshi Hase will also be in the finals.

After a strong first 500 meters by brothers Niksa and Sinisa Skelin, Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell stormed past and won their semifinal in the men's pairs.

Pinsent and Cracknell face Drew Ginn and James Tomkins in the six-boat final.

Lisa Schlenker, a lightweight sculler, pulled away from the field in the third 500 meters to win her semifinal in 7:53.81, 2.06 seconds ahead of Mirna Rajle.

Schlenker, the 1999 silver medalist from Lake Oswego, Oregon, will be in the final Saturday against Rajle, Kirsten van der Kolk, Viktoriya Dimitrova, Maria Mas De Xaxars Rivero, and Daniela Nachazelova.

In the heavyweight singles, Roumiana Neykova and Xiuyun Zhang won women's sculls semifinals, while Marcel Hacker and Olaf Karl Tufte were the men's winners.