The Great Britain men's quadruple scull team qualified for the Olympic rowing final after finishing third in the semi-final, behind world bronze medallists Croatia and Australia.
Matt Wells, Tom Solesbury, Charles Cousins and Stephen Rowbotham produced the fastest last 500 metres of any crew in the field to move up from fourth and into the qualification places.
The British crew closed in on Australia in the final stretch but were just beaten to the line by three tenths of a second.
The British pair of George Nash and Will Satch claimed a commanding semi-final victory to qualify for the Olympic final in their debut international season.
Nash and Satch recovered from a slow start to lead by half-way from France and they had opened a clear water advantage by the 1750m mark.
France responded with a powerful finish but the British crew held them off to win by three-quarters of a length and announce themselves as medal contenders in Friday's final.
World champions New Zealand's Hamish Bond and Eric Murray won their semi-final and will be almost unbackable favourites for gold.
Alan Campbell, the world bronze medallist, qualified for the single sculls final in second place behind Ondrej Synek from the Czech Republic.
Campbell started well and he led the field for the first 1250 metres but Synek produced a strong finish to claim the race win by a length.
Mahe Drysdale, the five-time world champion, won the first semi-final comfortably and will be favourite to win his first Olympic gold medal but it promises to be a thrilling race for the podium with Campbell, Synek and Sweden's Lassi Karonen all in medal contention.