World Taekwondo Championships: Mahama Cho takes silver, Jade Jones into semi-finals

Mahama Cho was born in the Ivory Coast but moved to the UK as a child

Mahama Cho matched the best-ever result for a British man at the World Taekwondo Championships with silver in the heavyweight division.

Cho, 27, beat Russian Roman Kuznetsov 22-4 to secure his place in the final.

But he could not contain Niger's Olympic silver medallist Abdoul Issoufou, who won his maiden world title with a 9-4 victory in the final.

Earlier, fellow Britons Jade Jones and Bradly Sinden guaranteed themselves at least bronzes by reaching the semis.

Their respective semi-finals which will take place on Friday.

• British heavyweight Bianca Walkden becomes double world champion

Cho joins Damon Samson (2015) and Michael Harvey (2011) as the only British men to have won world silver medals.

"In that final I thought I had my tactics right," Cho told BBC Sport.

"But as you know giants are always going to be difficult to fight against and he played his game tremendously.

"I hope I'll fight him again because I never like losing once to someone. Let's hope next time I will be able to get the job done proper.

"I'm satisfied with the performance though and what I put together, and it's something we can build on for next time."

Cho's medal follows Bianca Walkden's heavyweight gold on Wednesday.

It means Great Britain have now secured a tally of four medals at a World Taekwondo Championships - equalling their record from 2011 - with one day of competition remaining.

Jones looking to complete grand slam

Double Olympic champion Jones, 24, remains on course for a career grand slam of major titles after beating Taiwanese fighter Chen Yu-chua 11-8 in the last eight.

Jones - also the reigning European Championships, European Games and World Grand Prix champion - has only ever managed World Championships silver.

The Welsh fighter, who won Olympic gold at both London 2012 and Rio 2016, began with a nervy 10-0 win over world number 130 Nada Laaraj of Morocco in the women's -57kg category on Thursday.

Jade Jones won gold at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games

But by the following round she was back to her dominant best, beating American Ara White 20-2 to move into the quarter-finals.

"I'm buzzing with my performance today," Jones told BBC Sport. "It's been a real mental battle.

"I don't think people realise how tough it is being at the top and then everyone saying I always go out in the quarter-finals - it's a jinx.

"I'm really happy I've proved I can perform mentally and be strong.

"I have never been able to quite tick off the world title despite the Olympic success, so I'm happy to have got past that mental block."

Sinden can make history

Sinden won gold at the Junior European and Commonwealth Championships before joining the senior ranks

Former European junior champion Sinden also qualified for the semi-finals by beating the defending world champion in the division, Belgium's Jaouad Achab, in a golden-point round. The fight had finished 10-10 following the regulation three.

The 18-year-old, ranked 62 in the world, also recorded a golden-point stoppage in his second fight against Lucas Guzman of Argentina, before beating Brazil's Davilani Cunha 22-1 in the last 16.

"I'm really happy to get a medal, I've been working for this and pushing since I came into the academy," he said.

"I've had some hard opponents but knew my game and just kept going."