Sautin, who has won eight Olympic medals in his career, said: "I'm really surprised I can perform like this today. The World Series was my first competition after the Beijing Olympic Games in seven months. Last week, I didn't enter the final in Doha and now I come back."
Chen Ruolin, winner of the women's 10m platform at the Beijing Games, dominated the tower by finishing in 444.05, ahead of Chinese teammate Kang Li in 421.70. Mexico's Paola Espinosa and Canada's Roseline Filion placed third and fourth respectively.
Chinese young pair He Zi/Wang Han met no challenges in the women's 3m springboard synchro by taking the gold in 331.20. Briony Cole/Sharleen Stratton of Australia edged Nora Subschinski/Katja Dieckow of Germany by 1.62 points to win the silver in 314.82.
Olympic champions Lin Yue/Huo Liang continued their unbeaten run on the men's platform synchro since they started to compete in the world events in 2006. Lin/Huo led the field in 484.92 while new duo McCrory Nicholas/Thomas Finchum of the United States came second in 460.50. "We just started to train synchro for a few weeks. I'm
satisfied with the results and more confident that we can do much better in the future," Finchum said.
Four other events - men's 10m platform, men's 3m springboard synchro, women's 3m springboard and women's 10m platform synchro - will be contested on March 28, 2009, the second and final day of the competition in Changzhou.