India now has one silver and two bronze medals to lie ninth in the medals tally. Russia tops the table currently with three gold medals for a total of seven medals in this tournament.

Manu and Saurabh fought back from 6-12 to level at 12-12, but that was not enough on the day to ward off the world class Russian pair in the Olympic event.

A total of 17 nations have medals at the Osijek ISSF Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun World Cup stage, in what is the final world level competition before the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympics next month.

Rio Olympic silver medallist Batsarashkina and World Championship gold medallist Artem Chernousov, earlier topped the second qualification round, with 390 out of 400, to qualify for the gold medal match-up against the Indian duo, who were second with 387.

In the first qualifying round Manu and Saurabh led the field shooting 587 out of 600 after 60 shots (30 shots each team member). Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Deswal, the second Indian pair in the fray, shot a combined 577, to finish fourth out of 32 teams.

Abhishek and Yashaswini then finished behind their compatriots with 386 to qualify for the bronze medal match against Iran’s Javad Foroughi and Golnoush Sebgatolahi, who finished fourth with 385 in the round of eight.

The Iranian pair beat India 17-7 to clinch bronze in the event.

Late on Friday, India’s 10M Air Rifle Mixed Team of Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar finished sixth, out in the second qualifying round. Their compatriots Anjum Moudgil and Deepak Kumar could not make it beyond the first, finishing 15th overall.