Olympic champion Huo Liang shrugged off the loss of long-time partner Lin Yue to injury as he combined perfectly with newcomer Qiu Bo in the 10m synchro — and claimed his third straight world title in the event.

Huo and Qiu totalled 480.03 points, leaving Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein 37.02 adrift in the silver medal position with Ukrainians Oleksandr Gorshkovozov and Oleksandr Bondar claiming bronze.

British individual 10m world champion Tom Daley, 17, grieving the loss of his father to cancer just two months ago, placed sixth alongside partner Peter Waterfield.

Huo and Qiu claimed gold despite being together for just a matter of months after Lin was ruled out through injury, highlighting the Chinese diving dynasty’s extraordinary strength in depth.

“I haven’t worked with Qiu Bo for so long, but our cooperation was smooth and we relate well,” said Huo. Qiu added that it would “depend on the leaders’ arrangements” whether the two would combine at next year’s Olympics.

China also won the tournament’s first gold, the women’s 3m synchro, Saturday to make the early running in their first world championships on home turf— three years after they topped the medals table at the Beijing Olympics.

China, hosting the biennial championships at Shanghai’s Oriental Sports Center, are gunning for the first ever diving gold medal sweep after missing only one at the 2008 Olympics and winning seven out of 10 in 2009.

In the 10m synchro final, Huo and Qiu executed a backwards 3.5 somersault in the pike position for their fourth dive and rounded off the contest with a breathtaking backward two-and-a-half somersault with two-and-a-half twist which earned them 98.28 points.

American David Boudia, a 2009 silver medallist, and his partner Nick McCrory rued a botched fifth dive which kept them out of the medals, despite placing second in the preliminaries.

Earlier, Wang Han and Shi Tingmao finished first and second in the women’s 1m springboard to maintain China’s 100 percent record in the championships’ diving preliminaries. The final will be contested on Tuesday.

But the event proved a non-starter for German competitor Tina Punzel, who slipped on her second dive and flopped into the water near-horizontal, earning her just six points from a possible 100.

Later on Sunday, Russia’s Natalia Ishchenko won her third successive world championships synchronized swimming solo technical gold medal.

The 25-year-old claimed her 11th world title with a score of 98.30 points for her routine in Shanghai’s main indoor pool at the Oriental Sports Center. Ishchenko is also competing in the duet and team competition and widely expected to add to her gold haul.

China’s Huang Xuechen, who had qualified for the final in second, was the 12th and final swimmer in the pool but was unable to overtake her Russian rival, scoring 96.50 points to claim silver.

Spain’s Andrea Fuentes finished third on 95.30 points.

On Saturday, highly decorated Wu Minxia coaxed injured 20-year-old He Zi through the women’s 3m synchro to claim her fifth gold medal in the event, and the first since the retirement of her illustrious former partner Guo Jingjing.

The 16-day championships formally opened with a colorful opening ceremony late on Saturday with water polo and synchronized swimming competition also under way on Sunday. The blue-riband swimming events start on July 24.

But the tournament has been overshadowed by a high-profile doping case involving Brazilian swimming star Cesar Cielo, with officials tightening their drug-testing regime in a bid to catch cheats.