Australia have narrowly missed adding to their diving medal tally on the final day of the world championships in Russia on Sunday.
Maddison Keeney and Grant Nel were third leading into the fifth and last dive in the new mixed three-metre springboard synchro finals in Kazan only to be relegated to fourth overall.
Former world No.2 Australia finished the nine-day diving titles dominated by 10-gold China with two bronze (Domonic Bedggood, Melissa Wu 10m mixed synchro; Samantha Mills, Esther Qin 3m synchro) seized on the opening night.
Keeney and Nel (310.01 points) were made to rue their final dive, opening the door for Italy's Tania Cagnotto and Maicol Verzotto (315.30) who overcame a wobbly fourth effort to snatch bronze.
China won again thanks to Wang Han and Yang Hao (339.90).
Canada's Jennifer Abel and Francois Imbeau-Dulac took silver (317.01) despite at one stage being second last.
Meanwhile, Australia's Bedggood (470.40) finished eighth in Sunday's 12-strong 10m-platform final won by China's Qiu Bo (587).
Qiu became the first man to win four medals in the 10m event at a worlds, including his third straight gold.
Chinese divers claimed 10 gold from 13 events, matching their record from the 2011 world titles which only featured 10 events.
