Fairytale for new Oarsome Foursome

The fairytale continued for Australia's latest 'Oarsome Foursome' when the underdog men's four came from last to book a remarkable tilt at Olympic gold.

Needing a top-three place in a highly-competitive semi-final to make Saturday's final, the crew of eights rejects overcame the odds by chasing down four rivals over the last 1000m to finish a thrilling second at Shunyi Rowing Centre.

It was the latest in a string of hurdles for Matt Ryan, James Marburg, Cameron McKenzie-McHarg and Francis Hegerty, who only qualified for the Beijing Games at the last selection race in June.

Traditional strong starters, the Australian underdogs were last at the halfway mark after a shoddy start but got their rhythm back in the third 500.

Their boat, christened Mike McKay after the Oarsome Foursome member, still only stood fifth at the 1500m but motored home to reel in USA, New Zealand and France and finish narrowly behind Britain.

Marburg said it typified the crew, who all had ambitions of making the eights at the start of the year and were terribly disappointed at missing selection.

"We've definitely jumped every hurdle along the way but I think it makes it all the more gratifying when you finally get to the finish line and really realising in April we didn't even know that we would be jumping on the plane to come across," he said.

"It's a really good opportunity. We all got put into the fours, we could have gone one of two ways.

"We could have sat there and complained and whinged or what not but we did the opposite.

"It all kind of solidified out there today, it was that kind of determination coming into the last 500, you know your mate is not going to let you down."

Ryan was too exhausted to make the calls after the 1000m mark and Marburg took over as the quartet lifted in the sapping heat and humidity.

"We usually race in a different kind of fashion and try to take the ascendancy early but this was a completely different ball game," said Hegerty.

"We knew if we stuck to our rhythm we might get back to the field but it was hard work."

The men's four were the third male crew to impressively qualify for finals action on Saturday after the world champion men's pair crew of Duncan Free and Drew Ginn cruised home to win their semi-final and the men's double scull did the same.

The women's eight averted disaster by coming from last place in the last 600 metres to snatch the last qualifying position in the six-boat final on Sunday.