China dominated the first day of the FINA/CNSG Diving World Series 2019 as the hosts divers took four synchro titles on offer while Olympic champion Cao Yuan became the first double winner in Beijing on Thursday March 7.

Cao Yuan/Chen Aisen of China topped the men's 10m synchro platform as they scored 494.55, beating Aleksandr Bondar/Viktor Minibaev of Russia (425.67) and Domonic Bedggood/Declan Stacey of Australia (411.00). Thomas Daley/Matthew Lee of Great Britain finished fourth (400.86).

Two time Olympic champion Cao in the 10m platform synchro in London 2012 and the 3m springboard in Rio 2016, continued his streak in the dual-track and won two titles in the two synchro platform and springboard event as well as a silver medal in the men’s 3m springboard.

"I made some minor mistakes in the forward and backward dives, but did a good job in the next four routines. It is a special pressure competing the synchro because I don't want to drag my partners down. I try to stay in tune with the pace of each partner. While I just need to concentrate on my own in the individual," Cao said after this morning's 10m platform final.

Cao stood on top of the podium of the 3m springboard synchro later in the evening session with Xie Siyi, winning 469.08 points, well ahead of the runner-ups Jahir Ocampo /Rommel Pacheco of Mexico (413.61) and Philippe Gagne/Francois Imbeau-Dulac of Canada (399.48).

Daniel Goodfellow/Jack Laugher of Great Britain placed second after five dives but made a big mistake in their last dive, 109C, and received 0 point for that.

"I had a quick rest at lunch time and tried to make myself excited for the evening final. I was happy that we performed our best," Cao said.

Thomas Daley was not totally satisfied with his 10m platform synchro performance.

"It was not a great battle today, but we were better than we did in the last leg in Japan. We did 387.93 in last event and today we took 400.86 points. Matthew and I are a rather new pair. We have been training together for only four months. Every new competition is a learning opportunity. I believe we will get better after we compete in the next legs in Montreal, Kazan and London. Our ultimate goal is the World Championships," Daley said.

Zhang Jiaqi, gold medallists in last year’s World Cup, claimed victory in her trademark event, the 10m synchro platform. She won with 354.06 points. Kim A Rim/Kim Mi Rae of DPR Korea came second (325.80) and Meaghan Benfeito/Caeli Mckay of Canada third in 313.44, respectively.

"I still felt very nervous but I tried to calm down since I am a bit more experienced than my new partner Lu. It is our second time competing together, we should boost each other," said Zhang, who won both individual and synchro in the first leg of the World Series in Sagamihara, Japan.

Shi Tingmao/Wang Han ruled the women's 3m springboard (339.30) and Maddison Keeney/Anabelle Smith of Australia took silver (300.93), while Grace Reid/Katherine Torrance of Britain closed the podium.

A total of 78 elite divers from 14 countries are taking part in the second leg of the Diving World Series 2019 which is running until Saturday March 9.