Cao and Xie, the reigning World Championship silver medallists, led after the first three rounds at the Wuhan Sports Center today only to be pegged back as Cao made a splash entry on his fourth dive.

Laughter and Mears then stretched their lead and enjoyed a 10.14 points advantage going into the sixth and final dive.

Disaster then struck for the Brits, however, as Laugher jumped too far at the end of the springboard and lost the normal height of his start.

This meant they scored just 70.68 for a total of 440.64 points.

Cao and Xie therefore snatched the gold medal with 448.74.

"I was in shock that Jack and Chris suffered a mistake at last because we thought it was impossible to come back and win the gold," admitted Cao afterwards.

"In fact, I was too eager to compete and I was not in control of my body, my starts and entries which made us behind after five dives."

Laugher claimed to be happy with their first five dives, but added that it was "unfortunate that my last dive did not perform to my normal standard."

"I want to have a good rest tonight [before the individual competition] and find out what I can learn from today's performance, and I hope I will not make the same mistake again in the future," he said.

Mexican pair Jahir Ocampo and Rommel Pacheco secured the bronze with 435.72.

It means China have won all three gold medals secured so far in home water after mixed team and mixed 10m synchronised success yesterday.

Action is due to continue tomorrow with men's 3m springboard and women's 10m platform events.