China's Olympic champion Hu Jia fended off a strong challenge from Cuba's Jose Antonio Guerra to win the men's 10m platform here on Saturday at the 11th World Swimming Championships.
Guerra had snatched the lead on the penultimate dive of the six-dive final, but finally made Cuba's first-ever world aquatics championships medal a silver. Russia's Gleb Galperin took the bronze.
Hu appeared on his way to victory early in the final after nabbing four 10s for his third dive, a backward three-and-a-half.
But he fluffed his fifth dive, a reverse three-and-a-half that scored worst of the round.
Guerra, whose turned in a more solid if not spectacular effort on the same dive earlier in the round, went into the final dive 27-hundredths of a point ahead of his Chinese rival.
"On my next to last dive, I made a mistake," Hu said. "My competitor was before me, and his marks were average. And when I did my dive I wasn't concentrating, so I made a small mistake."
But Guerra left the door open with his sixth and final dive, a backward twisting two-and-a-half somersault.
Hu closed his performance with a more polished version of the same dive to add the world title to the Olympic crown he won in Athens.
"I only know I was before the other athlete after the competition ended," Hu said.
Guerra said Cuba's first medal in any of the disciplines at the world swimming championships was "team effort" and thanked his coaches and his colleagues on the national team.
"It's a great honor," he said.
Galperin, too, made a move on the final dive, jumping from sixth place onto the podium. His dive wasn't perfect but it was enough.
"My last dive was not very, very successful," he said. "But when people kept telling me, 'You have the bronze. You havethe bronze,' I realized I did."
"I wasn't thinking abut winning a medal. I wasn't looking at the scores. I just did the best I could possibly do. I'm happy it happened like that."
Earlier Saturday, David Meca gave Spain their first gold of the championships as he out-sprinted Australian Brendan Capell at the finish of the men's 25km open water race.
Meca, who won a 10km open water world crown before serving a two-year doping ban, captured the final open water gold up for grabs on the course at Montreal's 1976 Olympic rowing basin in 5hr, 21.4sec.
Capell, who won the 25km at last year's open water world championships in Dubai, was second in 5:00:23.6 with Bulgaria's Petar Stoychev finishing third in 5:00:28.4.
Stoychev's bronze was his second of the week, after his third-place finish in the 10km on Wednesday.
Meca, a specialist in sea events, tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone in 1999.
During his two-year ban he carried out a number of high-profile stunts including breaking the record for crossing the Straits of Gibraltar and swimming between infamous prison Alcatraz and San Francisco with irons attached to his feet.
Synchronized swimming was due to wrap up on Saturday with Russia the favorites heading into the team final.
The Russian team includes Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova, who lifted the duet title on Friday.
MEN'S 10M PLATFORM: FINAL
1. Hu Jia (CHN) 698.01pts - gold medal
2. Jose Antonio Guerra (CUB) 691.14 - silver medal
3. Gleb Galperin (RUS) 656.19 - bronze medal
4. Rommel Pacheco (MEX) 655.20, 5. Dmitry Dobroskok (RUS) 649.62, 6. Leon Taylor (GBR) 642.81, 7. Yang Jinghui (CHN) 619.77, 8. Robert Newbery (AUS) 618.06, 9. Bryan Nickson (MAS) 603.87, 10. Heiko Meyer (GER) 596.07, 11. Anton Zakharov (UKR) 587.13, 12. Matthew Mitcham (AUS) 560.73
QUALIFIERS FOR FINAL:
1. Yang Jinghui (CHN) 684.00, 2. Gleb Galperin (RUS) 652.59, 3. Hu Jia (CHN) 651.12, 4. Dmitry Dobroskok (RUS) 638.94, 5. Robert Newbery (AUS) 636.03, 6. Bryan Nickson (MAS) 628.29, 7. Heiko Meyer (GER) 619.56, 8. Jose Antonio Guerra (CUB) 608.28, 9. Anton Zakharov (UKR) 600.63, 10. Leon Taylor (GBR) 599.67, 11. Matthew Mitcham (AUS) 598.53, 12. Rommel Pacheco (MEX) 592.71
Qualifiers for semi-finals: 1. Yang Jinghui (CHN) 489.87, 2. Gleb Galperin (RUS) 466.26, 3. Robert Newbery (AUS) 452.85, 4. Dmitry Dobroskok (RUS) 452.82, 5. Hu Jia (CHN) 444.87, 6. Heiko Meyer (GER) 437.67 and Bryan Nickson (MAS) 437.67, 8. Matthew Mitcham (AUS) 427.83, 9. Anton Zakharov (UKR) 427.53, 10.
Leon Taylor 425.97, 11. Jose Antonio Guerra (CUB) 421.62, 12. Rommel Pacheco (MEX) 417.24, 13. Cassius Duran (BRA) 410.16, 14. Aliaksandr Varlamov (BLR)
408.96, 15. Francesco Dell'Uomo (ITA) 407.46, 16. Vadzim Kaptur (BLR) 400.74, 17. Wegadesk Gorup-Paul (CAN) 398.73, 18. Hugo Parisi (BRA) 388.44
OPEN WATER SWIMMING (MEN'S 25KM):
1. David Meca (ESP) 5:00:21.4 - gold medal
2. Brendan Capell (AUS) 5:00:23.6 - silver medal
3. Petar Stoychev (BUL) 5:00:28.4 - bronze medal
4. Stephane Gomez (FRA) 5:00:32.3, 5. Josh Santacaterina (AUS) 5:00:33.1, 6. Maarten van der Weijden (NED) 5:00:33.9, 7. Gilles Rondy (FRA) 5:00:35.4, 8.
Mohamed Elzanaty (EGY) 5:01:37.1, 9. Yury Kudinov (RUS) 5:03:56.4, 10. Alan Bircher (GBR) 5:04:16.9, 11. Anton Sanachev (RUS) 5:06:40.5, 12. Marco Formentini (ITA) 5:07:15.3, 13. Mohamed Serour (EGY) 5:07:37.6, 14. Igor Jajcen (SLO) 5:09:26.6, 15. Claudio Gargaro (ITA) 5:09:47.5, 16. Rostislav Vitek (CZE) 5:10:44.1, 17. Alexander Studzinski (GER) 5:10:45.9, 18. Jakub Fichtl (CZE) 5:14:06.5, 19. John Kenny 5:17:33.2, 20. Malcolm Lavoie (CAN) 5:17:43.5, 21.
Andre Couturier (CAN) 5:19:35.5, 22. Stejepan Piticar (CRO) 5:27:57.7, 23.
Roberto Quiroga (ARG) 5:29:08.5, 24. Sean Seaver (USA) 5:30:10.9, 25. Christian Hansmann (GER) 5:30:15.5, 26. Gregory Fuentes Cali (ECU) 5:47:23.5, 27. Jane Karajovanov (MKE) 6:00:51.9
Synchronized swimming (Team final):
1. Russia (Maria Gramova, Natalia Ischenko, Elvira Khasyanova, Olga Larkina, Elena Ovchinnikova, Svetlana Romashina, Anna Shorina, Anastasia Davydova, Anastasia Ermakova) 99.334pts - gold medal
2. Japan (Saho Harada, Naoko Kawashima, Kanako Kitao, Hiromi Kobayashi, Erika Komura, Ayako Matsumura, Emiko Suzuki, Masako Tachibana, Takako Konishi) 97.834 - silver medal
3. Spain (Raquel Corral, Andrea Fuentes, Tina Fuentes, Thais Henriquez, Gemma Mengual, Irina Rodriguez, Paola Tirados, Cristina Violan, Gisela Moron) 97.750 - bronze medal
4. USA 95.666, 5. Canada 94.917, 6. China 94.750, 7. Italy 93.500, 8.
France 92.083 9. Greece 91.833, 10. Ukraine 91.001, 11. Brazil 89.000, 12.
Switzerland 88.084
PRELIMINARY 2ND ROUND (FOR QUARTER-FINAL BERTHS)
-- Italy 9 Spain 6
-- Cuba 3 United States 14
-- Greece 7 Netherlands 4
-- New Zealand 1 Germany 2
-- Matches for places 13-16
-- Venezuela 8 China 7
-- Uzbekistan 1 Brazil 11.