Rio de Janeiro, Aug 11 (IANS): Britain's Jack Laugher and Chris Mears won the gold in the men's synchronized three-meter springboard diving competition at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

Laugher and Mears accumulated 454.32 points on Wednesday, followed by Americans Sam Dorman and Mike Hixon (450.21), China's Yuan Cao and Kai Qin (443.70), Germany's Stephan Feck and Patrick Hausding (410.10) and Mexico's Rommel Pacheco and Jahir Ocampo (405.30), reports Efe.

The competition began with the favored Chinese out in front, but in the third round they received scores of below 8 points, while the Britons secured several 8.5 evaluations on a dive with a difficulty rating of 3.4 and surged into first place, which they never subsequently relinquished.

From that point forward, however, the Chinese - who are the world champions in the event - focused intently on recovering lost ground and began moving up in the standings from sixth place, eventually moving all the way back up to third.

Laugher and Mears, who won the bronze in the World competition last year, had saved their most highly rated dives - 3.4, 3.9 and 3.8 - for last, and given that they executed them all virtually flawlessly, their gold was well-deserved.

The Mexicans had been in third place after three rounds, but they had a bad dive in the fourth round and slipped out of the running for the silver, where the Chinese and Americans battled it out.

Dorman and Hixon moved into the last round under pressure to perform almost perfectly, which they managed to do on a dive rated 3.8, whereby they garnered 98.04 points, thus ensuring themselves the silver.

In the pair diving competition so far, China is ahead with three golds and one bronze, followed by Britain with a gold and a bronze, the United States with two silvers, Italy and Malaysia with one silver each and Canada and Australia, each with a bronze.