However, there was joy for Ireland with Belfast bantamweight John Joe Nevin securing at least bronze with a controversial 7-5 win over China's Yu Gu, who was penalised two points in the second round for negative tactics, to reach the semi-final.

Yafai's failure to guarantee at least bronze was most surprising, as the 20-year-old Birmingham flyweight showed patches of the form that had swept him into the last eight and went down 9-3 to Germany's Ronny Beblik.

But Yafai and his team felt aggrieved by the scoring as a number of his apparently good shots did not count and he was penalised two points in the second round for a low blow.

It was less of a surprise that inexperienced Cardle should find Cuban world number one Roniel Sotolongo too hot to handle.

The Blackpool man was 11-4 down in round three when he was stopped due to a bloody nose.

Cardle said: "I really wanted to finish the fight, I didn't think it was that bad.

"But he was more experienced than me.

"I've learned from the whole thing and next time I'll be back for a medal."

Nevin (pictured) became only the sixth Irishman to secure a medal in the World Championships after his tense quarter-final.

Irish coach Billy Walsh said: “John Joe boxed the perfect fight.

"He carried out the tactics that we wanted exactly and it paid off.

"It was as if he was boxing a mirror image of himself because the guy had exactly the same style as John Joe.

"He was looking to counter as well.

"He didn't want to commit to attack and he got warned twice and then had the public warning for not boxing in the second round.

"John Joe was going forward as if ready to attack but then backed off and the guy fell into the trap.

"John Joe is our first World medallist since 2001 when James Moore got bronze and it was somehow appropriate that James' dad Jim was in the corner just as he was when his son got bronze in Belfast."

But hopes of multiple Irish medals were dashed as welterweight Willie McLoughlin was well beaten by Russia's Andrey Zamkovoy 16-7, and Olympic bronze medallist Kenneth Egan fell 17-9 to Abdelkader Bouhenia of France.