Marburg, Francis Hegerty, Cameron McKenzie-McHarg and Matt Ryan provide Australia's strongest hope for a world title today after blitzing the field in a semi-final in the early hours of yesterday (Australian Eastern Standard Time).

The Beijing Olympics silver-medal-winning crew proved too strong for Belarus, with the Czech Republic third.

The Australians clocked six minutes, 0.94 seconds - a winning margin of more than three seconds over the 2000m.

Having come from behind to win in their heat, Marburg's crew got out of the blocks as planned and went through 500m more than a length clear of Belarus, the Czech Republic and Greece.

At 1000m Australia held a commanding lead.

Australia consolidated the four-second lead in the third 500m and then held its composure to the line.

This crew now moves directly to the A Final, to be rowed today.

Great Britain won the other semi-final in 6:0.17 over France and Slovenia.

Australia's bow seat Matt Ryan said the race went according to plan.

"The plan was to take it out pretty hard today.

"We had a rough start in the semi-final in Beijing so didn't want that to happen again," he said.