Host China started high by taking the two gold medals on offer on the opening day of the FINA Diving World Cup 2018 in Wuhan on Monday, while Canada, Russia, Ukraine and the USA also grabbed medals from the two mixed events.

Si Yajie, former World champion and Rio 2016 silver medallist in the women's 10m platform, and her partner Lian Junjie won the mixed 10m synchro platform title with a total score of 353.31 points, beating the second-placed Canadian divers Caeli McKay and Vincent Riendeau by 52.11. Sergey Nazin/Valeriia Belova of Russia took the bronze medals with 299.88.

"It is a good start for me and for Team China. We trained together for three weeks and we performed our best today, " Si said.

Photo credit: Xiao Yijiu (Xinhua)

For the 18-year-old Lian, today was his first time competing at the World Cup.

"I was feeling good during the competition. Winning the gold in the first competition of the World Cup was perfect for me," Lian said.

For the runners-up Caeli and Vincent of Canada, finishing with a medal was already a satisfactory result since it was their first competition as a pair.

"As this is our first competition together, we are quite happy with how it finished. Our dives were pretty consistent," said the 18-year-old Caeli.

"I have done mixed synchro with another diver before but it's Caeli's and mine first time together. We are pleased with the synchronisation part of our performance. We could have done better in some dives individually," Vincent added.

In the mixed team event, China's Qiu Bo/Chen Yiwen collected 406.20 from six dives to take the champion. Oleg Kolodiy/Sofiia Lyskun of Ukraine finished second 388.90 and the Krysta Palmer/David Dinsmore of USA came to third 374.65.

Photo credit: Xiong Qi (Xinhua)

"I made a mistake in the 109C as I was too much in a rush. But in general, we have improved a lot compared to last year in the FINA World Championships in Budapest where we placed sixth and performed terrible," Qiu said.

The FINA Diving World Cup takes place every two years and this year in Wuhan is the 21st edition.