Australia have fallen one target short of being in the mix for bronze in the Tokyo Olympics mixed trap competition, with both pairings finishing equal fifth.
Laetisha Scanlan and James Willett, who teamed up to win gold at the most recent world championships in 2019, missed a combined five of 150 targets.
Penny Smith and Tom Grice, who claimed bronze in 2019 after becoming the inaugural mixed world champions in 2017, also posted a combined score of 145/150 on Saturday.
One more broken target from Scanlan, Willett, Smith or Grice at the Asaka range would have kept their respective side in the hunt for Australia's first shooting medal in Tokyo.
But the qualifying phase of the mixed competition, added to these Games as part of the International Olympic Committee's push for gender equality, is even more unforgiving than the individual event.
San Marino's Alessandra Perilli and Gian Marco Berti will go head to head with Spaniards Fatima Galvez and Alberto Fernandez in the gold-medal shootout, with both sides managing a score of 148.
Madelynn Bernau and Brian Burrows will represent United States in their bronze-medal decider against Slovaks Zuzana Rehak-Stefecekova and Erik Varga.
Closing rounds of 49 from the US and Slovakia teams lifted them to a final score of 146, one clear of Australia's two sides plus Japan.
Bernau and Burrows, shooting in the final bracket of competitors, both calmly brought down their final 14 targets to end Australia's hopes of a medal.
The near miss comes two days after an even more slender margin denied Scanlan a medal in the women's trap final.
Perilli edged fourth-placed Scanlan to secure bronze and her microstate's first ever medal on Thursday, when the score was level but she advanced because of a higher qualification rank.
Scanlan-Willet and Perilli-Berti were joint leaders after failing to miss a single target in the first of Saturday's three qualifying rounds.
Scanlan-Willett remained in the box seat for a medal after a second round of 48, at which point they remained level with San Marino in equal second.
Smith-Grice were equal fourth after the first and second rounds, but misses in the final round from all four Australians proved costly.
