Willett and Laetisha Scanlan entered the mixed team trap event as the world's top-ranked pair, but finished seventh overall in qualifying with a combined total of 145 from 150 targets.

That score left them one point away from fourth place and a shot at the bronze medal.

Willett and Scanlan had the outright lead by one after the first of three qualification rounds when they both cleared their 25 targets.

They dropped to second after round two as Scanlan missed two targets, while Willett maintained his perfect record.

But with little margin for error to remain in the top four placings, Willett missed his first shot of round three and Scanlan was unsuccessful with her second as the Australian duo tumbled down the leaderboard.

Willett ended up with 73 from 75 across three rounds, while Scanlan shot 72.

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"The last round they had to go out and shoot it clean and that was more pressure for them both," Willett's father, Arthur, who was cheering on from home, said.

"If you follow shooting a fair bit, even locally, there's always someone who will have a day or two days out and come out of the blue.

"If they'd have had a bit of overseas competition, I believe they would have shot a bit better. That was the downfall for them.

"James was telling me (on Saturday night) his average over there was 24 per round and he couldn't really do any better than that."

Arthur paid tribute to his son for the hours of work he put in on the range at the family's Mulwala farm, along with coach and 1996 Olympic double trap gold medallist Russell Mark to prepare for the Games.

"You've just got to shoot every day and that's where Russell has come in and helped James," Arthur added.

Fellow Australians Thomas Grice and Penny Smith finished on the same total as Willett and Scanlan and were classified sixth overall.

Willett flies back from Tokyo on Monday night and will stay in quarantine in Darwin for around two weeks before he returns home.

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