The Australian quartet could still ride for bronze but cannot reach the gold-silver ride-off in a result Baker's Tasmanian Institute of Sport coach Matthew Gilmore said they would not have been happy with.

"I'd suggest they'd be disappointed with that," he said on Monday evening.

"Their training has been going well and I was a little bit surprised by that performance. I had them down as a chance to go under 4:10 and possibly even break the world record."

Instead it was the German team which smashed the world record set by Great Britain at the Rio Olympics.

Germany took nearly three seconds off the mark by clocking 4:07.307 with Australia recording a time of 4:13.571 to also finish behind GB, USA, Italy, France and New Zealand.

Baker, 26, of Perth, was competing with South Australians Annette Edmondson and Alex Manly plus Ashlee Ankudinoff, of NSW.

All bar Manly had been involved in the training crash which curtailed medal hopes at the 2016 Games.

Gilmore said the Germans' performance would have shaken up their rivals but saw positives in the Australian result.

"Other teams would have been rattled by what Germany did. To go three seconds under the world record is a massive performance but that's what the Olympics throws up.

"The Aussies have got to keep their heads screwed on. It's only day one and I think they will be better for that ride because they are now at the point where they've got nothing to lose. They are better than that performance, they just need to produce it in the next couple of rides."

Coached by Glenn O'Shea, the Australian team will take on sixth-placed New Zealand in the first heat at 4.30pm on Tuesday with finals scheduled for later in the evening.

Gilmore also felt Baker was a strong chance to contest the madison in which she won a world championship silver medal with fellow Tasmanian Amy Cure in 2019.

Baker will be one of four Tasmanians in action in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Having narrowed his Olympic participation down to just the 1500 metres, King Island running sensation Stewart McSweyn will begin his campaign in round one at 10.05am (AEST).

And at 8pm, Eddie Ockenden and Josh Beltz will be hoping to help the Kookaburras qualify for the gold medal match from a semi-final against Germany.