The New Zealand's women's K4 crew have made a promising start to their sprint canoe world championships campaign in Italy, qualifying eighth-fastest for the semi-finals in Italy.
The combination of Jaimee Lovett, Caitlin Ryan, Aimee Fisher and Kayla Imrie led for most of their 500m heat before finishing second behind hard-charging Poland.
The Kiwis will chase a top-10 ranking in the semi-finals on Saturday, which will fulfil the criteria to qualify a boat for next year's Rio Olympics.
Ryan believes they are on track to do so.
"We were feeling really strong before racing and we executed our individual and team race plans as they were set," Ryan said.
"We've got a good sense of confidence and we feel strong so I think we've got the mental edge and it's all going really well."
Earlier, Kiwi defending champion Lisa Carrington cruised through to the semi-finals in her specialist K1 200m event, winning her heat by more than 1.5sec in 40.330sec.
It was the fastest time of the 49 paddlers, leaving the Olympic champion on target to achieve a golden double in Milan.
On Thursday she qualified for Saturday's K1 500m final.