The duo had taken fourth place in Beijing four years ago but after dominating the round-robin stage of the competition in Cortina, their momentum faltered at the final stages.

Defeat to Sweden on Monday saw them battling with Italy for third place and, in a tight encounter on Tuesday afternoon, Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini took the initiative in the first end and the British pair could not find a way past them, eventually being beaten 5-3.

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Mouat said: “We’re gutted obviously. We had a lot better week than we did four years ago, so to again not come away with something is bitterly disappointing.

“We spoke really well last night and had a really good conversation about how proud we are of making it this far again. How many people in the world can say they get to play two Olympics with some of their best friends?

“It’s just incredible, we’ve both worked so hard to get to this point, it’s just unfortunate and I can’t believe we’re coming away with nothing again after such a good week.”

Neither team chalked up more than one point in an end and Dodds felt Italy’s score in the fourth had perhaps proved pivotal.

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She said: “It was a lot better performance than last night (against Sweden) and that’s what we set out to do.

“We probably just had a couple of half-shots and they fully capitalised on them. Probably the steal in the fourth end was a big momentum shift and they probably controlled the scoreboard after that.

“I’m proud of us this week, it’s just disappointing coming away with fourth place again – you feel like you played a lot better than four years ago but I think that is the nature of mixed doubles.

“The standard is getting higher and higher and I think it’s going to continue to do that.”

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Mouat and Dodds will now switch their attentions to the men’s and women’s competitions, which kick off on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Dodds added: “We’ll chat about things tonight, probably be upset and then regroup. Tomorrow we’ve got practice so we’ll kind of draw a line under it tonight and get back into the men’s and women’s games before tomorrow.

“I would say I’ll put it behind me. Going into any tournament or championship, you come in with a clean slate so I don’t really want to dwell on the past.

“I very much want to look forward so I will sort of feel the feelings tonight and regroup for tomorrow.”