Willett was in 10^th position and one target off the pace of a spot in the six-man semi-final with one round of qualifying to come, but missed two shots in the last phase to slip to 21^st overall.

Such was the standard of the competition, Willett finished just two targets behind the sixth-place qualifier for the chance to shoot for a medal, but his final tally of 120 from 125 targets would have had him equal second in the discipline at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Willett was forced to play catch up after a tough start to qualifying on Wednesday where he missed two targets in round one to sit outside the top 20, but clawed his way back to 15^th by day's end.

He shot a perfect 25 to start day two and move to 10^th, but was unable to sustain it and progress to the medal round.

Willett's father, Arthur, admitted 18 months without the pressure of competing on the international stage couldn't be underestimated.

"You can't do much wrong. All of his opposition is paid to shoot each day, they're employed in the army, navy or police force," he said.

"I don't want to be rude to anyone, but we're playing seconds footy here. You've got to get overseas to get the pressure and the virus didn't help him there."

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Arthur was extremely proud of what his son had achieved since making the transition from trap to double trap, after it was removed from the Olympic program, and the extraordinary lengths just to get him to Tokyo.

"Shooting Australia couldn't work out what to do with him and whether they were going to put him on a plane in NSW or Victoria into Brisbane," he said.

"I didn't want him going through the airport so I did 3500 kilometres in two days and drove him up and came straight back.

"James got us permits to go into Queensland, so we did everything right.

"People don't see what we've had to do to get him to places and keep him away from the virus. If he got the virus, he couldn't go."

But Willett's hopes of winning a medal at these Games isn't over, with he and Laetisha Scanlan to shoot the mixed trap team event as the world's top-ranked pair on Saturday from 10am.

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