Antill secured bronze in the men's quadruple scull at the Tokyo Games, but Rowing Australia officials had opted against attempting to qualify the boat for the Paris Olympics and went all in on a bid for a breakthrough gold in the men's eight.

But now Rowing Australia officials have given the men's quad scull and lightweight women's double scull the green light to compete at the final Olympic qualification regatta in Switzerland in May.

"They sent some athletes over to Italy to compete in a World Cup to keep people engaged with the sport, senior athletes who didn't make it. My crew went and we did quite well, we ended up beating a crew that had already qualified and we were right up there in the final, we came fifth," Antill said.

"That means we get to go to FQR now. They call it the 'regatta of death', because only the top two crews get to go to the Games and everyone else is relegated.

"It's not going to be easy going from here, we still need to make quite a lot of improvements to really ensure our top two spot, but there's still a chance.

"A few weeks ago, it very much felt like my rowing career had come to an end, which was pretty tough. That was the first time I hadn't made the team since 2017. A bunch of things probably happened that I didn't quite agree with.

"It's great now to have a bit of redemption to show that form was there and me and my crew should have been selected. I'm looking forward to proving it even further in the next couple of months, hopefully going all the way again."

Antill joins Jack Cleary, Campbell Watts and Alexander Rossi in the hunt for a place in Paris with Oscar McGuinness joining the crew as a reserve.

ANU's Anneka Reardon joins Georgia Miansarow in search of an Olympic berth in the lightweight women's double scull.

"Jack Cleary was in that boat [in Tokyo]. [Watts] and I won a silver medal in 2018 at the world championships, and a young guy from WA, Alex Rossi, won a bronze medal in the under 23s in the quad last year," Antill said.

"There's plenty of racing ability on board. It is a bit staggering we didn't get put forward in the first team announcement. It's a bit hard to wrap your head around, but we did what we needed to do going over there. We're rolling with the punches. Hopefully we can go a few steps better."