Trio added to Olympic canoe sprint line up

Three more pieces of the Australian sprint canoe Olympic jigsaw have fallen into place, with Perth's Steve Bird and Queensland pair Alyce Burnett and Alyssa Bull winning selection races at the national championships.

Hometown favourite Bird was a clear winner of the men's K1 200, while Bull and Burnett proved too strong for 2012 Olympians Naomi Flood and Jo Brigden-Jones in the K2 500 on day two in Perth.

In other events, 2012 K4 Olympic gold medallists Murray Stewart and Jacob Clear pipped two-time world championship silver medallists Ken Wallace and Lachlan Tame in the final of the men's K2 1000.

With Stewart, Clear, Tame and Wallace already qualified for Rio, and with Australia having earned the right to take seven 1000-metre paddlers, third-place getters Fitzsimmons and Wood look set to also join the Rio-bound team.

Burnett and Bull followed up their brilliant K2 500 win in the opening Olympic selection race in Adelaide with an even more impressive win on Thursday.

"When we won the first race, it kind of caught us off guard a bit," Burnett said.

"Obviously that's what we wanted, but to come away with the first win, it was something we didn't really expect.

"Coming into today the tension was high, the nerves were there, but we just executed it perfectly."

For Bird it will be his second Olympics, after competing in the K2 200 in London alongside fellow Perth paddler Jesse Phillips.