Seeded third, the Slovenian duo – who have been shooting together for more than five years – first beat Ecuador by five points, 155-150, then, in the quarters, slipped past Mexico by just a point to meet India in the semis.
Toja Cerne and Degan Sitar led the match by three points after four arrows but, in the third end, India – Trisha Deb and Sarvesh Pareek – took over. The Asian athletes tied the match. It was the Slovenians needed to, in their own words, “wake up”.
“We shot well in the beginning but then the third match was really bad,” Dejan admitted. Toja laughed as he said: “it was for the spectators.”
The last end of the clash with India went Slovenia’s way.
Dejan and Toja drilled three centre-ring arrows: X10, X10, 10 and 9. India… 10, 10, 9 and 9. It put the Slovenian pair ahead, and into a mixed team gold final for only the second time on the Archery World Cup circuit, four years since the leg in Porec in 2011 – where the nation won silver.
The pair already made two bronze finals in 2015, in Shanghai and Antalya, but neither came with a medal. Slovenia finished fourth, twice.
“I’m happy that we finally made a gold medal match,” said Toja. “We’re already guaranteed one medal and of course we will fight for gold, but coming fourth twice this year hurt a little bit. This time we are just going to be there and have fun.”
The bronze medal match will be contested by India and the USA’s Reo Wilde and Lexi Keller.
