DOHA, Qatar –  In men’s 3m synchro on Sunday, all the medalists from the World Aquatics Championships - Fukuoka 2023 returned to see if they could defend or upgrade their previous medals. Only China’s China’s Long Daoyi, 20, and Wang Zongyuan, 22, prevailed. And they prevailed by a lot (58.17 points ahead of the silver medalists).

The rest of the field flipped places faster than a slot machine during the six-round final.

Great Britain’s Anthony Harding, 23, and Jack Laugher, 29, had taken silver at the last two world championships but on Sunday, they placed fifth after sub-par execution of their last two dives. (Laugher already had four medals in this event with three different partners.)

Italy’s Lorenzo Marsaglia, 27, and Giovanni Tocci, 29, replaced the Brits as the new silver medalists, despite being in tenth place after the first round.

Taking an unexpected bronze medal were Spain’s Adrian Abadia, 21, and Nicolas Garcia Boissier, 28. They were less than a point away from the silver, but their third-place finish was historic as it marked Spain’s first world championship medal in diving history.

Meanwhile, all eyes were on Mexico to see if it would claim its fourth medal of these championships, but a disastrous third-round dive sunk Rodrigo Diego Lopez and Osmar Olvera Ibarra (Saturday’s 1m champion) to 15^th place at the midpoint of the contest. Mexico rallied, however, after that bungled forward 2½ with 2 twists and placed fourth, missing the podium by just nine-hundredths of a point.

The 2023 bronze medal duo from France were never really in contention and finished 12^th.

Wang said the victory “is a great achievement for us and we would love to win the next gold at the Olympics. This medal, like every other medal, is very special to me.”

Wang and Long also admitted that Sunday’s event required unusual fortitude. In addition to waiting for 26 other pairs to dive in each round, Long said, “The stadium is so cold – colder than previous championships, so the temperature is a big challenge.”

The silver medalists from Italy were a bit more ebullient. After placing sixth at the Tokyo Olympics together, Tocci said that to qualify for another Games and win a medal on Sunday “means everything to us. We reach our goal.”

Marsaglia added, “We make a good duo because we complement each other, I am the funny guy and he is the serious one! We are both trained by women, which is quite common in Italy.”

Spain’s bronze medalists said they had been simply been aiming to finish in the top five and qualify for the Paris Olympics. The addition of a historic medal, Garcia Boissier said, was “a double dream.”

Last year, both men uprooted their lives to train together in Madrid. Abadia left Louisiana, where he had been studying, and Garcia Boissier moved from the Canary Islands, where he has a fiancée. Since May 15, Garcia Bossier said, “There hasn’t been a single day without us training together to get prepared for this Olympic project.”

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The lone final on Monday should be a hot ticket.

In the women’s 10m platform final, Chen Yuxi, 18, of China will vie for her fourth consecutive world title while her countrywoman, the reigning Olympic champion, Quan Hongchan, 16, will try to finally outscore Chen after claiming two consecutive silver medals.

Also, keep an eye on Britain’s 2022 junior world champion, Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, who spoke exclusively to WorldAquatics.com about everything she’s picked up from observing the Chinese divers just before she flew to Qatar.