Australia’s highly-rated women’s 4x100m relay team has come up just short in their bid to qualify for the Paris Olympics final.

The lineup of Ella Connolly, Bree Masters, Kirstie Edwards and Torrie Lewis clocked 42.75 seconds, significantly slower than the flying 42.48 they ran at the London Diamond League meet in late July

Crucially, the squad anchored by Australian individual 100m record holder Lewis finished outside the top three automatic qualifiers in fourth place and the second heat was faster.

They had broken the national record three times this year - in Sydney, the World Relays in the Bahamas and London.

The star-studded US team, anchored by 100m silver medallist Sha’Carri Richardson, qualified fastest for Friday night’s final in 41.94.

The Australian men’s 4x100m squad overcame the absence through injury of national 100m champ Sebastian Sultana to lower the national record in the men’s heats.

Their time of 38.12 would have been enough to win the second of the two heats, but unfortunately the lineup of Lachlan Kennedy, Jacob Despard, Calab Law and Josh Azzopardi were drawn in the much quicker first one where they finished sixth.

They also missed out on advancing to the final.

Michelle Jenneke defied a ruptured hamstring tendon to contest the repechage round in the women’s 100m hurdles.

She trailed home last in 13.86 - well over a second outside her personal best - but was proud of herself for fronting up after sustaining the injury in a heavy fall during the opening round.

Fellow Australians Liz Clay and Celeste Mucci also came up short.

“I didn’t want my Olympic campaign to end the way it was yesterday,” said the 31-year-old Jenneke.

“I knew that making that semi-final and running under 12 seconds missing one of your hamstrings was probably pretty impossible.

“But I just wanted to prove to myself and the rest of Australia that I’ve got some grit in me and I’m not going to give up easily.”

Despite the injury, Jenneke stil found the energy to do her trademark warm-up dance routine.

Jenneke will likely have surgery on the ruptured hamstring when she gets home but remains keen to push on at least until next year’s world championships in Tokyo.

Tokyo Olympics fourth-placegetter Peter Bol and national record holder Joseph Deng were both run out in the 800m repechage round.

Young countryman Peyton Craig had advanced straight to the semis after finishing third in his opening-round heat on Wednesday.