Great Britain's women's eight secured Olympic qualification by winning a bronze medal at the World Rowing Championships in Slovenia.

The crew of Alison Knowles, Jo Cook, Jess Eddie, Lindsey Maguire, Natasha Page, Louisa Reeve, Katie Solesbury and Vicky Thornley finished behind the USA and Canada  but edged traditional powerhouses Romania off the podium.

Top five finish earned them qualification to London 2012.

"We'd done some fast times in training and that is important because it is positive proof rather than just in our heads," said Cook.

"During the race we expected the whole field to be side by side all the way down the course and I just kept saying to myself that every stroke counts.  

"There are huge expectations in the team - we are all going for gold and we really do that every day in training."

There was disappointment for the lightweight men's four of Chris Bartley, Paul Mattick, Rob Williams and Richard Chambers who were unable to defend their world title as they also claimed bronze. Australia edged out Italy to take the gold.

"You know we're disappointed that we're not world champions again but next year's the big one," said Chambers.

Elsewhere, an untimely illness hit Marcus Bateman and Matt Wells's hopes of upgrading their silver medal from last year in the men's double scull.

Bateman has a restless night before the final and the crew looked off their best as they came home in sixth.

"I got woken in the night by Marcus being sick," said Wells. 

"I only got three hours sleep and he got much less, there was no fuel left in him. I went out this morning to train with the spare and we weren't sure if we could race but we made the decision as a team. 

"For two fifths of the race, we were really there and even to finish five seconds off the bronze when not totally fit is impressive. 

"We were missing half the boat and for the last 500m it was all me. It would have been incredible if we could have beaten one of the other crews.  I think there are seven boats that can win gold next year."

Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger, in the women's double scull, Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs-Hodge, in the men's pair and single sculler Alan Campbell all won their respective semi-finals to underline their podium intent.

Reed and Triggs-Hodge, whose performance booked their place at London 2012, will now look to reverse a long losing streak against New Zealand's defending champions Eric Murray and Hamish Bond in the final.

"We're very excited about the Olympic Games but the job is now the Kiwis and the final and I think we showed that our last two months have made a huge difference to our racing," said Triggs-Hodge.

"I'm always very wary of comparing times from semis. Pete and I are really, really positive about what we are doing and I'm sure we can step on and produce one of our best races in the final and that's all we can do."

Paralympic champion Tom Aggar won the men's singles sculls to reinforce his dominance of the sport - but insisted it's getting tougher.

"That was a fairly close race. Obviously the rest of the guys are improving every year and with the Paralympics next year everyone's going to get hotter again. It was a tough race but I'm pleased to come out on top," he said.

More than the Games / Eurosport