Despite defending her world lightweight women's double sculls title, there is no rest for Bay of Plenty rower Julia Edward.

Along with her rowing partner Sophie MacKenzie, Edward roared home to take gold in their A-final at the Rowing World Championships in France over the weekend.

Sophie MacKenzie (left) and Julia Edward. Photo: File.

And talking to SunLive in the aftermath of her victory, her father Harry Edward says Julia was wrapped to come away with the win.

'I spoke to Julia on Sunday and she was obviously ecstatic,” says the Rotorua lawyer. 'She said their race went to plan and that they wanted to be on the move at around the 800m mark.

'Then it just all fell into place. It was a good game plan and it was well executed.”

Harry says his daughter told him before going into the race that there was a really 'positive feeling” within the camp.

'In saying that, there will be a few left disappointed,” says Harry, 'but overall I think they're really happy with everyone's performance.”

Although Julia and Sophie won the title qualifying for the Rio Olympics, there is no guarantee the pair will be selected – despite the fact Julia rowed at the last games in London.

'The boat has qualified, but they've got to get selected,” confirms Harry.

'It's just a matter of who ends up rowing at the event. The other young lightweight had a good regatta as well. So there's going to be plenty of good competition to see who gets to row in Rio.

'She's well aware that the pressure is on and she's really keen to respond. She loves a challenge.”

Harry says his daughter wasn't returning directly home. 'She is one of seven who have been sent by Rowing New Zealand down to Rio to check out the facilities.”

Along with Julia's gold on the final day, the event saw a flurry of other medals for New Zealand rowing.

In all, another four medals were picked up, with gold for the women's double, silver for the women's eight and men's single and bronze from the men's double.

It was also an historical day for New Zealand's big boats, with both the men's and women's eight qualifying for the Olympic Games.

The New Zealand women's double of Zoe Stevenson and Eve Macfarlane looked strong as they came flying through the field in the second-half of the race to take the lead and win gold.

Their medal tops off a perfect season for the duo after they won gold at the second and third World Cup regattas.

Eve says the race was everything the pair could have dreamed of.

'We were both saying that we were visualising exactly how we wanted it to pan out,” she says, 'and I think it was just as we imagined.”

The New Zealand women's eight rowed an impressive race to win silver behind the reigning World Champions from the United States.

The women's eight have well and truly claimed their Olympic qualification spot and made history by becoming the first New Zealand eight to qualify for the games.

Men's single sculler Mahe Drysdale moved through the field and went toe-to-toe with rival and reigning World Champion Ondre Synek.

The two scullers were locked in battle until the final stroke, when Ondre crossed the line inches ahead of Mahe leaving him with silver.

Robbie Manson and Chris Harris remained calm under pressure in the men's double as they hung onto the race leaders throughout. The Kiwi double had an impressive last 500m to push past Germany and win bronze.

The Kiwi men's eight had a tough task against some of the heavyweights of world rowing, but the young crew punched above their weight, and were right amongst the frontrunners before coming home in fourth in a photo finish.

Their spot is also secured for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and they are the first Kiwi men's eight to qualify since 1984.

The men's lightweight four of Curtis Rapley, Alistair Bond, James Lassche, James Hunter were in the hunt behind race leaders Switzerland, but were unable to keep up with the fast pace in the final stages and finished fourth, just missing out on a medal.

Rowing New Zealand have qualified nine boats (and a total of 33 athletes) so far for Rio 2016 and will look to land more at the qualification regatta next May.

At the 2012 London games, the team was made up of eleven crews and 26 athletes.