The hopes of Ireland's Ger Owens and Philip Lawton featuring in the Olympic medal race disintegrated today as finishes of 15th, 13th and 24th pushed them down the 470 fleet.
The Dun Laoghaire pair completed the opening series in disappointing fashion as they lost their grip on an overnight position of 14th and finished the ten-race regatta in 16th overall.
Owens, together with Ross Killian, also finished 16th overall in the same class at the Athens Olympics four years ago. Lawton is a first-time Olympian.
The dying winds around Qingdao saw the remaining three races in the 470 class blocked together today.
With the breeze improving to a solid eight knots, race eight got underway with the Irish boat rounding the first mark in 15th and they did well to finish there, after falling behind to 18th at one stage.
Emphasising the tightness of the double-dinghy event, just a minute and 43 seconds separated the top 15 crews in the eighth race.
The next race was not much different as Owens and Lawton, who were briefly tenth at the second mark, claimed 12th spot, two minutes and 55 seconds behind race winners New Zealand (63:00).
Race 9 effectively ended the Irish boat's chances of making the medal race, which includes only the top ten crews.
Now 15th overall, Owens and Lawton experienced a number of difficulties in race 10 and rounded the first mark 28th of the 29-boat fleet.
The Dubliners have struggled for consistency all week and their final run in 24th just hammered that home.
Had they had some better luck, their two races wins from Monday and Wednesday would have counted for more, but too many back-of-the-fleet results left them chasing the pack.
