With partner Liu Huixia, the duo claimed the top spot of the podium with 356.28 points from their five final dives.

Canadian London 2012 bronze medallists in the discipline Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion took silver with 331.41 points, while Malaysia's Pandelela Rinong and Leong Mun Yee repeated their 2009 World Championships feat by winning bronze again today in the Spanish city with 331.14.

"Our coach often tells us: when you step down from the podium, you start again from zero," Chen said.

"The experience is important, but it is not enough to get a medal - you have to continue working hard.

"In 2007 [in Melbourne], when I got my first gold in this event with Tong Jia, we were a very new duet.

"Today, pairing with Liu is an entire new experience: she is very young, but at the same time very strong and quite adaptable."


The men's one metre springboard event saw another Chinese athlete, Li Shixin, take a further gold for the nation as he became the first man to retain a world title in the discipline.

Li won with 460.95 points, and was joined on the podium by Beijing 2008 medallist and current European champion Illya Kvasha of Ukraine who claimed the silver medal with 434.30 points, and Mexico's Alejandro Chavez taking the bronze with 431.55.

Meanwhile, it was an exclusively European podium in the synchronised swimming as Russia won gold with 96.600 points for a fourth consecutive world title in the event, host nation Spain took silver with 94.400 points and Ukraine celebrated their first podium finish at a World Championships in the discipline with bronze in 93.300 points.

"The team technical routine is difficult to train because there are a lot of elements to perform with the best possible quality and it takes time to integrate them," said Russia's head coach Tatiana Pokrovskaia.

"I was positively surprised by Spain.

"Even though they have a new coach, I did not notice the difference in their level, they are still very innovative and strong."

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