China have not lost at this event for three years but could have easily buckled under pressure with a packed arena cheering to the rafters for home favourites Tom Daley, 18, and his 31-year-old teammate Peter Waterfield.

But after trailing at the halfway stage of the six-dive competition, they pulled back magnificently, unflappably capitalising on a couple of critical errors by the British pair in dives four and five to win with a score of 486.78 as the host nation's medal hopes – not for the first time at London 2012 – sank without trace.

Form left to right, silver medallists Germán Sánchez and Ivan Garcia Navarro of Mexico, gold medallists Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan of China and bronze medallists Nicholas McCrory and David Boudia of the US celebrate on the podium during the medal ceremony for the men's synchronised 10m platform diving

The audacious pairing of Mexico's Germán Sánchez and Ivan Garcia Navarro, choosing harder dives than any of the other seven countries in an event where degrees of difficulty can score you vital points, took the silver.

The relatively untried pairing of Nick McCrory and David Boudia of the United States, with an 8.82 points gap over Daley and Waterfield, were comfortably clear in bronze position by the finish for their country's first  diving medal for 12 years.

Chinese divers won seven golds on home soil four years ago and do not expect to be behind in any competition, let alone the Olympics.

But in an event for which there was no qualification, they found themselves playing catch-up early on as the British team fed off the crowd support with an exceptional start.

Peter Waterfield and Tom Daley compete in the men's synchronised 10m platform diving on day three of the London 2012 Olympic Games

With three dives left Daley and Waterfield were still in the gold medal position, only for Waterfield to over-rotate to hand the initiative back to the Chinese who grabbed their chance and never looked back as they nailed down victory with hardly a blemish.

Such is the nature of diving, with 60 per cent of marks for synchronism and only 40 per cent for execution, that there is hardly any margin for error.

After finishing one place outside the podium Daley, who hit the headlines as a 14-year-old at Beijing 2008, will now pin his medal hopes on the solo 10m platform competition on August 10, the penultimate day of action at London 2012.

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