China won its fifth diving title of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Tuesday (16 August) after Cao Yuan led throughout to win the men's 3m springboard title.

Cao climbed out of the water after his last dive and pumped both fists in celebration. His score of 547.60 points saw him take gold ahead of Great Britain's Jack Laugher on 523.85.

He and Chris Mears had already won the synchronised 3m even to give Britain its first gold in diving, spoiling China's bid to sweep all eight golds in Brazil.

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Patrick Hausding of Germany rallied from 10th after the semi-finals to take bronze at 498.50.

With four-time Olympic champion Greg Louganis looking on, Cao led all six rounds in the final. The 21-year-old Chinese finished off his performance by scoring 96.90 on his last dive, a forward 4½ somersault tuck.

"He's incredible," American Kristian Ipsen said. "He's so athletic, just really, really quick. He's fun to watch."

Jack Laugher won silver for Great Britain (Photo: Getty Images/Adam Pretty)

In the fifth round, Laugher performed the same dive that Cao saved for last and received the same 96.90 total.

But it was Hausding who did the difficult dive the best of anyone. He earned 98.80, the highest score of anyone in the 12-man final.

"Why am I not first?" Hausding said, laughing. "But I'm totally fine with third place."

Cao added gold to the bronze he won earlier in synchronised 3m event. His teammate, He Chao, didn't make it out of the preliminaries on Monday.

Full diving schdule and results from Rio 2016

"Competing in the finals by myself added a lot of pressure," Cao said through a translator. "I was able to let go and really focus on putting on my performance and putting up a show."

Defending Olympic champion Ilya Zakharov of Russia failed to advance out of the semi-finals. He hit his feet on the board on his first dive in the prelims and then he barely topped 50 points in the next two rounds.

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