Nick Woodbridge on top of the world after medal

The double Olympian scooped individual silver in China, marking the first time a British male has claimed a medal at the competition since Richard Phelps' struck gold in 1993.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet, but it feels good," said Woodbridge, whose season has been hampered by injury and whose previous best performance of the year had been a 16th place at the Rio World Cup in March.

"I've had a difficult year so it's nice to finish on a high," he added. "I've had a couple of injuries that have prevented me getting the results I wanted and I think I needed this. Winning silver at the World Championships is by far my best result." I feel like I've worked hard for this for so many years, but I've just missed out for different reasons in the past."

Woodbridge's previous best career performances include gold at the 2004 World Youth A Championships and bronze at the 2011 World Cup Final in London.

He was only confirmed for the team for Kaohsiung just over two weeks ago after overcoming health problems. And his crowning achievement took place on a superb day for Team GB, which also saw the women's team of Kate French, Samantha Murray and Mhairi Spence winning team gold.

Woodbridge found himself seventh after the fencing with 21 wins from 35 bouts and he climbed to second place with the second fastest swim of the day in a time of 2:00.62.

He dropped just 40 points from the maximum 1200 in the riding arena to go into the run/shoot in joint third place.

And he shot with composure, only needing two extra shots to hit the 20 targets on four visits.

He coolly hit the required five targets in his final shoot with five shots in just 12.68 seconds to leave the range in second place.

And he looked comfortable on the final 800m run, crossing the finishing line five seconds behind winner Lithuania's Justinas Kinderis.

Whitchurch's Joe Evans, meanwhile, just missed out on a medal when he and Samantha Murray finished fourth in the mixed team relay.