Kim Crow has ensured she'll be the face and spearhead of Australia's 2016 Rio Olympics rowing campaign by reclaiming her status as the world's top female rower.
The 30-year-old Victorian won the women's single scull title on the final day of the world championships in Aiguebelette, France, providing the only gold medal in an Olympic event of Australia's campaign.
The Australian team also won two gold medals in Paralympic events as well as silver medals in the men's four and men's quadruple scull to finish fourth overall on the medal tally, won by Great Britain from New Zealand and Germany.
It was a fall of one place on last year's results but they still managed to edge the United Stated and France.
The win by Crow, the 2013 champion, came after she was relegated into second place last year by New Zealand's Emma Twigg, who didn't compete this time.
Crow still faced off against a strong field including 2012 Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic.
But she dominated to lead from start to finish in blustery conditions, crossing in seven minutes 38 seconds and followed home by Knapkova and China's Jingli Duan.
"This feels really special," Crow said. "It's been a really fun year.
"I've just got engaged (to 2008 Olympic rowing gold medallist Scott Brennan), I'm getting married later in the year and to round it off with a world championship title is just fantastic."
With the world championships doubling as qualification for the Rio Olympics, Crow's was one of seven Australian boats to secure Rio spots while two Paralympic boats also booked places.
In other results on the finals day of competition, the Australian men's double scull of Alexander Belonogoff and James McRae came in fifth in the A-final, won by defending world champions the Sinkovic brothers of Croatia.
In the B-final of the women's double scull Sally Kehoe and Olympia Aldersey needed a top-five finish to book a place for Rio, which they did, coming in fourth.
In the B-final of the women's eight, Sarah Banting's crew took second behind the Romanians and are now ranked eighth in the world.
The Australian crew in the men's eights B-final took third behind the US and Poland to conclude the regatta ranked ninth overall.
