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Australia have added three more boats to their Olympic rowing team to end a successful final Games qualification campaign in Poland.
Single sculler Pippa Savage started the ball rolling nicely by winning the first final of the Poznan regatta before the women’s heavyweight double sculls crew and men’s four qualified with top-two finishes.
Cate Sens and Sonia Mills led for the bulk of the double sculls race before Ukraine motored home to win in seven minutes 18.98 seconds.
Needing a top-two finish to book a place in Beijing, Sens and Mills (7:22.03) were virtually assured of a Games start when they led with 500m left and were well ahead of third-placed Poland.
The men’s four crew, also needing to finish first or second, went one better by leading from start to finish to beat home China and Canada.
Francis Hegerty, Cameron McKenzie-McHarg, James Marburg and Terrence Alfred rowed with precision throughout to cross the line in 6:05.85, 1.3 seconds ahead of the Chinese.
Brisbane-based Savage earlier stormed home to beat Italy’s Gabriella Bascelli and Serbian Iva Obradovic in 7:58.33.
Needing to finish in the top three, the 27-year-old two-time national champion appeared set for success from the outset, starting strongly to lead over the first 500m.
Obradovic passed Savage before the half-way mark but the Queenslander responded in the final 400m to win comfortably, almost three seconds ahead of Bascelli.
The victory justifies Savage’s decision to overlook a guaranteed place at the Beijing Games in the quad sculls and focus on the singles.