Drew Ginn and James Tomkins confirmed their status as the world's best with victory in the men's coxless pairs.
The Australians had proved so strong over the last year that British hopefuls Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell were moved into the four.
And Ginn and Tomkins eased to victory ahead of Croatia's Niksa and Sinisa Skelin, with Donovan Cechand and Ramon Di Clemente of South Africa in third.
Britain's Toby Garbett and Rick Dunn came in seventh.
Olaf Tufte of Norway added the Olympic crown to his world title with a dramatic fightback in the men's single sculls on Saturday.
Tufte led at halfway before he was overtaken by Estonia's Jueri Jaanson in the closing stages.
But the Norwegian was not to be denied and he battled back to finish in six minutes 49.3 seconds.
Jaanson was 3.14 seconds behind to take silver, with Bulgaria's Ivo Yanakiev in bronze medal position.
Sebastien Vieilledent and Adrien Hardy of France won the gold medal in the double sculls in a time of six minutes 29 seconds.
Luka Spik and Iztok Cop of Slovenia took silver and Italy's Rossano Galtarossa and Alessio Sartori claimed bronze.