World junior champions Harley Windsor and Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya have narrowly missed gaining Australia a figure skating pairs berth at next year's Winter Olympics in the first stage of qualification.
The pair reached the finals to finish 16th overall at the world championships in Helsinki on Thursday (Friday AEDT).
The event decided 16 of 20 places at February's Olympics in Pyeongchang, but in a qualifying system weighted towards top-ranked countries, China, Russia and Canada were awarded additional places.
Despite having only two pairs competing in Helsinki, the three powerhouses were each granted berths for three pairs at the Olympics, leaving only another seven spots up for grabs for the other competing nations.
The Australians have a final chance to qualify at an International Skating Union event in September, where the last four spots will be determined.
Windsor, an indigenous 20-year-old from western Sydney, and Moscow product Alexandrovskaya - who does not yet have Australian citizenship - teamed up this month to be crowned the country's first world junior champions.
They completed a triple twist, throw triple flip and throw triple salchow in Thursday's final, but fell attempting a side-by-side triple salchow and side-by-side triple toe, finishing with a score of 164.10.
Chinese duo Wenjing Sui and Cong Han took gold with a total of 232.06 points, ahead of Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot (230.30) in second, with the bronze medal going to Evgenia Tarasova Vladimir Morozov (219.03) of Russia.
