Selection for Rio is far from finalised in the Australian Olympic canoe sprint team with the latest round of racing throwing up more questions than answers.
The main Olympic selection regatta is the Oceania championships in Adelaide next February but team officials used a grand prix event last weekend at the same venue to track the prospective athletes.
The coaches tested new boat combinations to determine the strongest crews ahead of the February titles.
Head coach Jimmy Owens said he was pleased with the progress of the paddlers.
"We are very much on track ... they are all hungry for success and to prove themselves to selectors," Owens said.
In the men's events the biggest shock came in the K2 1000m when under 23 world champions Jordan Wood and Riley Fitzsimmons beat 2015 world championship silver medallists Ken Wallace and Lachlan Tame by more than two seconds.
Wood and Fitzsimmons were part of the crew who finished fourth in the men's K4 1000m at the Milan titles, along with with London Olympic gold medallists David Smith and Jacob Clear.
Selectors held two K4 races in Adelaide to test the combinations.
In the first the world championship crew prevailed over 1000, while in the second Wood and Fitzsimmons were then paired with veteran Olympian Wallace and Tame and won that race over Smith, Clear, Daniel Bowker and Jy Duffy.
Owens was excited by the performance of both and said the small margins meant there wasn't a stand-out for selection.
"There was nothing in it and it showed the fight in the boys," Owens said.
"It doesn't really make any clear decisions in what we're doing but it's clear everyone is fighting for their positions in the team."
Olympic selection in the women's events is even more wide open after they failed to secure any berths for Rio at the Milan world titles by missing the final in the K4 500m.
Their only chance now is through the Oceania championships and if they qualify a K2 boat, can take up to three paddlers.
London Olympian Jo Brigden-Jones pushed her case by edging Alyce Burnett in the K1 200m however Burnett turned the tables in the K1 500m.
Brigden-Jones and Naomi Flood then combined to win the K2 500m ahead of Burnett and Alyssa Bull.
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