In absence of the regulars, compound mixed pair of Trisha Deb and Sarvesh Pareek kept India in hunt for a bronze medal in the ongoing Archery World Cup Stage 4 here today.
Trailing by three points after four arrows, the 10th seeded India duo took over in the third end to level but only to go down 152-153 in the decider against the third seeded Slovenian duo of Toja Cerne and Degan Sitar in the semifinals.
The Indian mixed team stunned second seed Colombia 156-153 in the quarters.
The Indian duo will face top seeded Reo Wilde and Lexi Keller of the USA in the bronze medal play-off on Saturday.
The Slovenian duo, who have been shooting together for more than five years, will take on Viviana Spano and Federico Pagnoni from Italy in the gold medal match.
Earlier yesterday, the Asian Games bronze medalist Trisha had the best finish among the Indians as she was seeded 14th in the qualification round.
Trisha, who had bagged an individual bronze at the 2014 Asiad, got a bye into the second round which will be an all-Indian battle as she will face 19th seeded Jayalakshmi Sarikonda.
Riding on Trisha's performance, India qualified to main draw as fourth seed, while the men's compound team were seeded sixth in the eight team draw.
India compound team will face fifth seed Italy in the women's quarters, while the men's will face hosts Colombia who are seeded third.
Atul Verma had the best finish in the recurve section as he finished 22nd in the qualification, followed by Dhaniram Basumatary (33rd), Kapil (53rd) and Vakilraj Dindor (65th).
The women's recurve section had two former Olympians in veteran Reena Kumari, Pranitha Vardhineni who had the best finish among the Indians with 37th rank, while the former finished lowly at 46th.
Indian men's and women's recurve teams were seeded 10th in the 16-team draw.
The Archery Association of India have sent a second string side for the last stage of the World Cup with the main team scheduled to leave for Rio this week for the Olympics test event at Sambodromo from September 15-22.
