British number one mixed doubles pair Chris and Gabby Adcock are one match away from a guaranteed medal at the TOTAL BWF World Badminton Championships in China.
The Adcocks, ranked sixth in the world, beat home favourites He Jiting and Du Yue 21-16, 21-16 in just 39 minutes to qualify for the quarter-finals.
It was their first ever meeting with the ninth seeds in Nanjing, and the British pair controlled the match throughout.
The British pair led from start to finish in the first game and eased to victory in the second despite some closer early exchanges.
“Feels great to be through to the quarter-finals here at the World Championships,” Gabby Adcock said afterwards on social media.
“Tomorrow we’ll be playing for a world medal against another Chinese pair!”
The Adcocks – gold medal winners at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year – will now face 2017 YONEX All England champion duo Wang Jihu and Huang Dongping for a place in the semis.
Reaching that stage would mean a certain medal, which would add to the bronze that they won in the 2017 World Championships in Glasgow.
Such a feat would make them the first British pair to win medals in back-to-back World Championships in 35 years.
Furthermore, no British pair has medalled at a World Championships hosted in Asia since 1987.
A quarter-finals win would only serve to cap off a fantastic year for the pair, one which has seen them defend their European Championship title, as well as making it successive Commonwealth Games victories.
Sportsbeat 2018