The Huon-based men’s lightweight four of Tamar’s Blair Tunevitsch, Lindisfarne’s Samuel Beltz, Tom Gibson, of Huon, and Queenslander Nick Silcox, faced a tough final featuring reigning world champion Denmark.

The Aussies settled into fourth and struggled to make it out of that position.

The Danes led from start to finish, followed by New Zealand and Great Britain, while the Australians dropped another place late on to finish fifth.

Huon’s Ella Flecker and her lightweight women’s double scull crewmate Alice McNamara, of Melbourne University, went one better but still missed out on the podium.

The crew, coached by Mark Fangan-Hall, sat in third for the majority of the race, chasing down the middle lane pack of New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, but dropped to fourth by midway.

By the final 500 metres, it was becoming clear that it wasn’t to be the Australia’s day as the Kiwis took the gold medal, and a new world best time, with Canada in second and China in third.

New Norfolk’s Olympic silver medallist Kate Hornsey was another Tasmanian in action on Amsterdam’s Bosbaan yesterday.

Melbourne-based Hornsey stroked the women’s eight to fourth in a B-final won by Germany.

Australia rounded off the championships with one silver medal and two bronze medals.

Kim Crow couldn’t replicate her 2013 world title in South Korea, with this year’s honours going to New Zealand’s Emma Twigg.

Meanwhile, the men’s double scull of James McRae and Alexander Belonogoff and the women’s equivalent of Olympia Aldersey and Sally Kehoe both claimed bronze medals.

Australia concluded its campaign with two gold medals, three silvers and three bronzes to sit third on the medal table, behind New Zealand and Great Britain.

Australian medals: Gold — Erik Horrie (ASM1x), Kathryn Ross and Gavin Bellis (TAMix2x); Silver — Kimberley Crow (W1x), Hannah Every-Hall, Maia Simmonds, Sarah Pound and Laura Dunn (LW4x), Kate Murdoch and Jeremy McGrath (LTAMix2x); Bronze — Fergus Pragnell, Joshua Dunkley-Smith, Spencer Turrin and Alexander Lloyd (M4-), Olympia Aldersey and Sally Kehoe (W2x), James McRae and Alexander Belonogoff (M2x).