On a night when his two remaining team-mates lost their semi-finals and had to settle for bronze medals, Gavin beat the man rated as the world's finest 60kg amateur fighter, Alexey Tishchenko, to secure his passage to the final and guarantee at least a silver.

 

Gavin - who like several of his countryman has this week qualified for next year's Beijing Olympics - beat Tishchenko 19-10 with a typically classy performance in the Windy City.

 

After Bradley Saunders and Joe Murray were forced to bow out with bronze earlier tonight, Gavin's success was all the more welcome.

 

Mancunian bantamweight Murray, who like his two team-mates has secured a place at next year's Games, was beaten 20-11 by Mongolian Enkhbat Badar-Uugan to miss out on a place in the final.

 

Sedgefield light-welterweight Saunders had already confounded expectations by racing to the last four and with it picking up an automatic qualification place for next year's Beijing Olympics.

 

But tonight he found experienced Russian Gennady Kovalev too tough to crack, never recovering from a poor start and, despite a brave late rally, ultimately falling to a 16-8 defeat.

 

These are by far England's most successful World Championships.

 

The three guaranteed medallists matches the total number of medallists in the history of the tournament prior to this year's competition.