Mahama Cho thanks GB Taekwondo staff after world silver medal win

Great Britain heavyweight Mahama Cho remained humble after collecting a silver medal from the World Taekwondo Championships in South Korea, where double Olympic champion Jade Jones kept on course for a shot at gold.

The Stockwell fighter, who lost his fight for bronze at the Rio Olympics last summer, booked a place in Thursday’s over-87kgs final by outclassing Russian Roman Kuznetsov 22-4.

However, Abdoul Issoufou proved a contest too far for the 27-year-old, who went down 9-4 as the 6ft 7ins Nigerian added the world title to his Olympic silver medal.

Nevertheless, for Cho it was a breakthrough at a major championships.

Cho, born in the Ivory Coast and who moved to London at the age of eight, dedicated his achievements to the support staff of GB Taekwondo, which has already matched a best-haul of four World Championship medals with one day of competition left in Muju.

“I have to say my team-mates, the staff members, they have been fantastic, and without them, I don’t think any of this would have happened,” Cho said.

“They really are the foundations of everything that we are doing today, so I really want to thank them, and UK Sport for the funding they have given us to be able to be in this position.

“I am absolutely blessed and am really grateful to have been given this opportunity.”

Cho added: “I thought I had my tactics right, but he (Issoufou) did tremendously well and stuck to his game plan – he is on my wanted list now and I want to beat next time. It starts from here and we keep building.”

On Wednesday, Bianca Walkden had become the first Briton to claim back-to-back world titles with a gold medal in the women’s heavyweight division.

Earlier during Thursday’s action, Welsh fighter Jones moved through the preliminaries of the women’s under-57kg – including a 20-2 defeat of American Ara White – before seeing off Chen Yu-chua of Taiwan 11-8 in their quarter-final contest, which guaranteed her at least a bronze medal.

Great Britain is also set for a medal in the men’s under-63kg for Bradly Sinden, who is a former European champion.