Margarita Sidorenko and Kirill Smirnov overcame the Chinese pairing of Wu Chunyan and Zhao Lixue in a tense semi-final before staying cool under pressure to beat Italians Elisabetta Mijno and Stefano Travisani to strike gold.

The RPC pair won the opening set 36-34 against Mijno and Travisani before losing the next 33-30.

The Italians established a two-point advantage after taking the third set 32-31 before the RPC duo claimed the next 35-33 to draw level at 132-132.

The shoot-off saw Sidorenko and Smirnov score nine points with their two arrows as Mijno and Travisani finished one point behind.

"It's a dream of every athlete to get this medal, to hold this medal," said Smirnov.

"(Winning the) shoot-off against China gave us a lot of confidence (for the final).

"During the China shoot-off, I drew the bow, released and (before) the arrow reached the target I already knew that it was a 10 (to win).

"I told Rita it was (going to be) a 10, and it was.

"We cannot understand our feelings and thoughts right now, maybe tomorrow we will know how we feel about it."

Italy had to settle with silver, while Wu and Zhao claimed bronze after beating Iran’s Zahra Nemati and Gholamreza Rahimi 6-2.

"We both put our hearts in it," said Mijno.

"It was wonderful.

"I kept my head straight and I’m really happy.

"I learned a lot in this place and I'm happy that I brought him [teammate Travisani] in this adventure.

"There is a lot of satisfaction, but losing gold is a little bit irritating.

"I have another medal and I am very happy because anyone who has a medal is, of course, happy.

"It was a very difficult competition for me because one year more is very difficult to accept for the mind.

"Gold is the best, but silver is a very good medal."