Olympic Games gold medallists Valeeva and Nespoli lost the opening set of the final against Georgia's Khatuna Narimanidze and Lasha Pkhakadze, before shooting a near-flawless second and third set to take control of the final.

Valeeva said: "The maximum that could be done, we did it thanks to Mauro.

"It's very nice to win this evening but tomorrow we have to fight our best for our friends in the teams. If they shoot as well as us, we will win."   

Pkhakadze said: "We are very happy but we can't really celebrate because there was a disaster in Tbilisi (floods) and so many people died there. Because of that I don't think we will celebrate. We will wait until the end of the Games."

Ukraine's Lidiia Sichenikova and Heorhiy Ivanytskyy won the bronze by beating the second-lowest seeded Slovenia team of Ana Umer and Rok Bizjak 5-1. The Slovenians had knocked out the second-seeded German team.

Earlier on Wednesday, Azerbaijan nearly pulled off a major upset against Italy in the men's team 1/8 eliminations. Italy's Nespoli and Michele Frangilli both won gold medals in the men's team event at the London 2012 Olympic Games, but the bottom-seeded Azerbaijan forced a shoot-off against the no.5 seeds, before losing 5-4.

In the women's team 1/8 eliminations, Georgia survived a scare against Great Britain, but won 5-3 to progress and end Great Britain's charge.

The women's and men's team events continue on Thursday at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium and will conclude with the medal matches.

 

(baku2015.com)