The Australian women's eight had just nine days to prepare for Rio after the Russian crew was eliminated for a doping offence and after coming fourth in their heat needed to finish in the top four to reach the final.

On a sun-drenched morning at Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, they came fifth, four-and-a-half seconds adrift of the fourth-placed Dutch, but Volker said they could take heart from their Olympic campaign.

"That was incredible, amazing, every great word you can think of," she said. 

"I can't put it into words what it feels like to row at the Olympic Games with those nine girls. It's been an amazing roller-coaster but we've ridden every turn and it's been an incredible journey. And to finish on that note, we're really pleased.

"It's been a pretty scattering couple of weeks. We got a phone call saying we might be going so we all dropped everything, got to Melbourne, got some training under our belt then got the call-up nine days out saying 'pack your bags up, you're going to Rio.

"It's been pretty hectic doing a lot of short intense work because we didn't have time to do the long stuff we would normally do at this stage of the season. So to get a result like that off the short work that we've been doing is great and the coaches in Melbourne and Rio have been amazing to get us ready for these Games."

The 25-year-old Buckingham rower could only speculate where the crew might have finished had it been able to enjoy a normal training program leading into the Games.

And she felt the crew, also featuring Fiona Albert, Olympia Aldersey, Molly Goodman, Alexandra Hagan, Jessica Morrison, Lucy Stephan, Charlotte Sutherland and cox Sarah Banting, had an exciting future.

"Honestly, I think we could have been really among the mix. We were going pretty well, we thought at qualifications although we missed out we were heading in the right direction.

"Over the next four years women's sweep rowing in Australia could do great things. I think we could get back into our golden era again if we could just keep this momentum going. We don't want to peak too early but I really hope we can get as many of these girls back for Tokyo. We just really want this crew to be deep and we want women's sweep rowing to win golds again."

FRIDAY AUGUST 12 – Hockey: 8.30pm Australia v Brazil, Deodoro Hockey Centre (9.30am Saturday AEST)

SATURDAY AUGUST 13 – Cycling: 11.17am Women's team pursuit first round, Barra Velodrome (12.17am Sunday AEST); 

Cycling: 4.53pm Women's team pursuit finals, Barra Velodrome (5.53am Sunday AEST)

STORY SO FAR: 

Amy Cure, Georgia Baker (cycling) team pursuit, 3rd in qualifying; 

Eddie Ockenden, Tim Deavin (hockey) Australia defeated New Zealand 2-1; lost to Spain 0-1, lost to Belgium 0-1, defeated Great Britain 2-1; 

Kerry Hore (rowing) quad sculls 2nd in heat; 5th in repechage; 

Meaghan Volker (rowing) women's eights 4th in heat, 5th in repechage; 

Richie Porte and Scott Bowden (cycling) road race DNF