IT was a disappointing start to the Tokyo Olympics campaign for sibling rowers Tom and Emily Ford.

The former students of The Grange School in Hartford missed out on automatic qualification for respective men's and women's eights finals in heats that were brought forward almost 24 hours due to severe weather conditions.

The brother and sister from Holmes Chapel and their crews will have another chance in the repechage in the early hours of Wednesday morning (UK time).

The men's eight, with Tom in the stroke seat, finished last of three boats in heat two, with the top two boats in heat one also posting considerably faster times.

The Dutch – who they beat by almost seven seconds in the World Cup regatta in Lucerne in May – finished first and the Kiwis, featuring double Olympic champion Hamish Bond, were second.

With only the two heat winners having progressed automatically, Tom and his teammates Mohamed Sbihi, Josh Bugajski, Jacob Dawson, Tom George, Charles Elwes, Oliver Wynne-Griffith, James Rudkin and cox Harry Fieldman will have company from United States, Romania, Australia and New Zealand for the remaining four places in the final.

And as the Romanian and Australian boats were considerably slower than Team GB in the heats, Tom and his team will be expected to still qualify from the repechage on Wednesday at 2.48am (UK time).

Men's 8, heat one:

1 Germany 5:28.95 (Qualifed)

2 United States 5:30.57 (Repechage)

3 Romania 5:39.84 (Repechage)

4 Australia 5:43.66 (Repechage)

Heat two:

Netherlands 5:30.66 (Qualified)

New Zealand 5:32.11 (Repechage)

Great Britain 5:34.40 (Repechage)

Northwich Guardian:

Tom Ford and the men's eight crew carry their boat to training. Picture: PA Wire

Boat member Sbihi, who was also a Team GB flag bearer in Friday's opening ceremony, said: “It’s not the performance that we wanted, slightly disappointing.

"We want to say it’s not a true reflection of ourselves and the way we’ve been training, but ultimately Wednesday will prove that.

“It’s not a great start to our Olympic campaign."

Sbihi refused to blame the distraction caused by a malfunctioning start mechanism, saying: “Regardless of the start it wasn’t good enough in the first k’. The Dutch did a great job of putting their nose ahead and once you’re in that position in an eight it becomes a luxury to be there."

The Team GB women's eight, with Tom's younger sister Emily on board, would have been unhappy with their result too.

They were almost eight seconds slower than the rest of the boats in the two heats and know they have a big job on their hands to find the kind of increase in speed needed to reach the final.

New Zealand and USA qualified automatically from the two heats, so Team GB will be fighting with Canada, China, Romania and Australia in the repechage on Wednesday at 2.30am for the four places up for grabs.

Women's 8, heat one:

New Zealand 6:07.65(Qualified)

Canada 6:07.97 (Repechage)

China 6:10.77 (Repechage)

Great Britain 6:26.76 (Repechage)

Heat two:

United States 6:08.69 (Repechage)

Romania 6:09.95 (Repechage)

Australia 6:18.95 (Repechage)