China doubled their gold medal haul at the World Championships’ diving events yesterday as their bid for an historic clean sweep quickly gathered pace.

Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao dominated the women’s 10m platform synchro, shortly after Li Shixin and He Min’s brave one-two in the men’s 1m springboard, giving China all four diving titles so far.

Chen won her third straight world title in the event after amassing 362.58 points with Wang, with Australian Olympic silver-medallist Melissa Wu and Alexandra Croak second and Germans Christin Steuer and Nora Subschinski third.

After three days of competition China have won not only every title, but also every heat at Shanghai’s open-air Crescent Lagoon venue, putting them on course to become the first country to win all 10 diving gold medals.

In the men’s event, Li Shixin stormed back from a ragged dive three to clinch first place, while compatriot He Min clawed his way from fourth to second spot, leap-frogging Germany’s Pavlo Rozenberg with his very last plunge.

He saved his best for last as he pulled off a precision inward 2.5 somersault in the pike for 81.60 points, pushing Rozenberg into the bronze medal position.

The climax of the competition was briefly interrupted when Mexico’s Daniel Islas crashed his right foot painfully against the board during his final dive, and left the pool deck in a wheelchair.

China won seven out of eight titles at the Beijing Olympics and another seven from 10 at the 2009 worlds in Rome, raising hopes that the sweep is on despite the retirement of Guo Jingjing.