Melissa Wu and Bree Cole seized Australia's second medal of the FINA world championships as powerhouse China dominated the opening night of diving in Melbourne.

Year nine student Wu swapped partners from Alex Croak to school teacher Cole recently to form a combination of more even height for the 10m synchronised event.

It looked like paying dividends in the lead-up to next year's Beijing Olympics as they combined brilliantly for silver with 324 points in a high-quality final behind China's outstanding Jia Tong and Chen Ruolin (361.32).

The results give tiny 14-year-old Wu something to show off to her teddy bear named Patchie, who she takes with her on trips away from home.

Wu, who came to prominence at last year's Melbourne Commonwealth Games, has had her problems with nerves in recent times but kept her composure in front of a small crowd at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.

It was the home nation's second medal of the championships following Kate Brookes-Peterson's bronze medal in the 5km.

The Australian pair started strongly but was unable to move into second place until their fourth of five dives as the Germans slipped up.

However they never threatened the ice-cool Chinese combination.

Earlier Australia's 3m men's synchro team of Scott Robertson and Grant Nel finished seventh behind the crack Chinese pair of Qin Kai and Wang Feng who streeted the field with 458.76 points.

Canada's Alexandre Despatie and Arturo Miranda (418.92) collected silver ahead of Germany's Tobias Schellenberg and Andreas Wels (414.54).

Australia's hopes were temporarily lifted with the pair moving to fifth at the end of a fourth of six rounds which was interrupted by a power failure that halted action just under half an hour.

The break clearly threw Russia's 2003 world champion Alexsandr Dobroskok as he failed to complete two of his final three dives.

Dobroskok lost his footing twice and failed to leave the board to extinguish his and Gleb Galperin's medal hopes.

However Australia's medal prospects also sank in the fifth round when Robertson and Nel failed to nail their dive and slipped out to ninth.

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