The 17-year-old Australian from Brisbane was hoping to earn her maiden Grand Prix title at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, having been given time off her school exams to compete at the event.

A strong sequence of dives saw Sheehan pull away from her Chinese rivals to end the three metre springboard competition with a total of 319.70 points, which saw her top the podium.

Her rivals had struggled with the windy conditions at the outdoor venue, with China’s Han Wang getting closest to the Australian by ending as the runner-up on 276.65 points.

Canada’s Mia Vallee completed the podium positions by scoring 262.75 points.

Victory will provide Sheehan with a boost ahead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, due to be held at the same venue.

"I think coming into the competition today I was feeling quite good," Sheehan, who made her Commonwealth Games debut at Glasgow 2014, when aged 15, said.

"I think the fact I’ve had the opportunity to dive at such a fantastic pool so early gives me a bit of a head start, so hopefully I’ll be back in 2018.

"Australia has got a really strong field of divers in the three metres, so I just need to work on myself and get more comfortable with my list and hopefully perfect them before the 2018 trials."

China were back on top of the podium in the women’s three metre synchronised event platform, with Han Wang and Zhihuan Xu winning on a total of 298.20 points.

Sheehan and Jayah Mathews were second with 283.80 points, while Canada’s Caeli Mckay and Mia Vallee ended behind the Australians on 266.85.

A sixth Chinese gold medal of the meet was earned by Jian Yang, after he scored 558.70 to comfortably win the men’s 10m platform event.

He finished over 100 points ahead of his team-mate Hao Yang and Australia’s Declan Stacey, who completed the podium with scores of 423.90 and 413.25 points respectively.

Hao Yang and Zewei Xu were the only competitors in the synchronised competition, the duo receiving a score of 393.24 points for their dives.