The trio of Guendelina Sartori, Elena Tonetta and Natalia Valeeva won 5-3 against Belarus' Hanna Marusava, Ekaterina Timofeyeva and Alena Tolkach. 

It was a second gold medal for Valeeva, adding to the one she earned with Mauro Nespoli in the mixed team event yesterday, as Italy stamped their dominance on early proceedings.

Sartori opened the final with a 10, but the early exchanges saw some low-scoring arrows; none more so than Timofeyeva's score of one with the final arrow of the first set.

Belarus' poor start handed Italy a 2-0 lead but the Eastern Europeans fought back to win the second set and level at 2-2.

After each team took a point from the third set, the gold medal was up for grabs in the fourth.

Italy held their nerve to shoot 53, bettering Belarus' score of 50, and sealing victory. 

“When I shot the last arrow, I burst into tears,” said Tonetta, who was third in Italy’s order of shooters.

“The emotion that was inside me for a long time just burst out.

“I haven't won an important medal for a very long time.

“I haven't been on the top step of the podium for ages."

Ukraine's Veronika Marchenko, Anastasia Pavlova and Lidiia Sichenikova defeated Russia 5-4 to take the bronze medal following a high-quality shoot-off.

Russia shot 29 out of a possible 30, but a measured Sichenikova found the middle of the target to round off a perfect 30 for Ukraine and secure third spot.

Meaanwhile in the men's equivalent event, the Ukrainian team of Viktor Ruban, Markiyan Ivashko and Heorhiy Ivanytskyy won 5-4 against Spain’s Miguel Alvarino Garcia, Antonio Fernandez and Juan Ignacio Rodriguez.

In a hotly-contested final, Ukraine twice came back from a set down, leading to a shoot-off.

Ruban, the Beijing 2008 individual champion, started with a 10, which was matched by the top-ranked Spaniard Alvarino Garcia, before Ivashko and Fernandez both scored nines.

With vocal support for the Ukrainians strong, Ivanytskyy piled the pressure on the Spaniards by scoring a 10 with his team's final arrow, after which Rodriguez could only record a six.

"If you have a country like Ukraine, you are lucky, and we dedicate this medal to our people," said Ivashko. 

"We have a good team, good guys, good training staff and the most important is the relationship between team mates.

"If you have all of these things, you have a chance of winning."

The Netherlands' Rick van der Ven, Mitch Dielemans and Sjef van den Berg got the better of the French team, also following a shoot-off, in the bronze medal match.



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