Annabelle McIntyre and Jessica Morrison have collected Australia’s second medal at the World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, battling to silver behind the Netherlands in the women’s pair.

Favourites going into the race, McIntyre and Morrison had been undefeated in Europe this season and won gold at World Cup events in Varese, Italy, in June and Lucerne, Switzerland in July.

But they were unable to chase down Dutch pair Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester on Saturday.

Employing the same tactics they used against the Australians in the semi-final, the Dutch blasted away from the start and held their lead all the way to the finish to spring the upset in seven minutes 20.52 seconds.

Australia were second in 7:22.90, with Romania third in 7:24.33.

“They got the jump on us,” said McIntyre, who with Morrison was part of the Australia’s Olympic gold-medal winning women’s four at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

“Whenever we moved, they moved and sat in front of us the whole way.

“This is a really good example of what can happen when someone just really, really wants something.”

McIntyre said she and Morrison would use the setback as a platform to learn from ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“We didn’t come away with what we wanted; but that shows how strong the field is,” she said

“It makes us really excited, really hungry for (next) season.

“We will step away, dissect the race and commit to some things we want to build on. The elements are there. We just need to really refine them.”

McIntyre and Morrison’s silver follows the gold medal won by Nikki Ayers and Jed Altschwager in the PR3 mixed double on Friday.

Australia qualified one more boat for the Olympics on Saturday after the men’s pair placed second in the B final.

That takes the nation’s overall tally to six boats qualified for the Olympics and three for the Paralympics with one more day of racing to go.

The world championships end on Sunday when Australia have four boats vying for medals: Erik Horrie in the PR1 men’s single scull, Tara Rigney in the women’s single scull, and the men’s and women’s eights.

-AAP