Leading Australian marksman James Willett cut a dejected figure in the Chateauroux sunshine after misfiring badly in his bid to fire his way to an Olympic medal.
On a baking Tuesday afternoon at the Olympic range, 260km distant from Paris, the 28-year-old quickly wilted early in the six-man final, missing three of his first six clays, and being the first to be eliminated.
His sixth-place finish would have been a huge disappointment for the man from Yarrawonga on the Murray River as he had qualified in brilliant fashion in the morning, missing just two of his 125 targets altogether to rank him the third-best in the field.
But the 15-time World Cup medallist, nicknamed the "Green Machine", quickly malfunctioned in the final, missing two of his first five targets to immediately leave him in last place.
With the sixth-placed shooter after 25 clays being the first to be eliminated, Willett could afford no more mistakes but his shoulders drooped once he missed the first target in the next batch of five as he knew that spelt disaster for his medal hopes.
Things got no better, so that he was comfortably the first competitor to be eliminated, having missed six of his 25 shots. None of the other five had missed more than three at that point.
Willett's consolation was achieving the best result by an Australian in the event since Michael Diamond finished fourth in London 2012.
Britain's world record holder Nathan Hales went on to take the title, missing just two of his 50 clays in the final, with China's Qi Ying (44) taking silver and Guatemala's Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas (35) bronze.
The other Australian representative, Mitchell Iles, missed out on qualifying for the final by just one clay, ending up ninth overall.
In the equivalent women's event, Penny Smith made a good start to her qualification, lying third overnight after hitting 73 of 75 targets, while Catherine Skinner, the 2016 Rio champion, was 17th with a score of 69.
