Eights post timely wins at pre-Olympic rowing World Cup
The men's and women's coxed eights were the standout winners as Australia dominated the last rowing World Cup regatta before the Paris Olympics.
Australia topped the medal table at Poznan, Poland, winning six golds among 11 medals from 13 events.
Amid Australia's outstanding success in the sport at the Games, the glaring anomoly is no gold medals in the blue riband eights events.
Rowing Australia has prioritised the two events ahead of Paris and those plan hit a snag late last month when the two crews finished out of the medals at the previous World Cup in Switzerland.
But the Poland wins are a timely morale boost as Paris looms.
"We know the competition will be deeper in Paris, however, there have been improvements across all the boats since the Lucerne World Cup," performance director Paul Thompson said.
"For me the important thing wasn't what they did but how they did it, racing with maturity and rhythm."
The men's eight led from start to finish in their final, while the women's combination beat a second Australian crew.
"We'll keep progressing. We've got six weeks still, I don't think anyone racing now has yet peaked, so we'd like to think that we'll get better in six weeks time," rower Angus Widdicombe said of the men's eights win.
"But it was a good step, that's for sure."
The No.1 Australian women's crew made a strong start, before their compatriots pushed them at the end.
"We were lucky enough to have another Australian eight, so we could have a bit more of a ding-dong battle at the end and really see how we perform under pressure," Bronwyn Cox from the Aus 1 crew said.
The win also gave Australia the overall World Cup title for the women's eight over the three-event series.
Tara Rigney won the single scull as Amanda Bateman and Harriet Hudson took out the double scull.
Annabelle McIntryre and Jessica Morrison dominated the women's pair, winning by seven seconds.
Last year's world champions Nikki Ayers and Jed Altschwager won the PR3 mixed double scull.
