China's He takes women's 1m springboard gold

Chinese diver He Zi competes in the women's 1m springboard final at the FINA World Championships in Barcelona on July 23, 2013. He won gold by the finest of margins as she edged out Italy's Tania Cagnotto by just one tenth of a point. (AFP)

BARCELONA (AFP) – Chinese diver He Zi won gold in the women's 1m springboard final on Tuesday by the finest of margins as she edged out Italy's Tania Cagnotto by just one tenth of a point.

European champion Cagnotto looked set for gold as she led by five points going into the final round of dives, but He produced the best effort of the competition with her final attempt to squeak into first place with 307.10 points to the Italian's 307.00.

China also took bronze through Wang Han who tallied 297.75 points.

The gold is He's second individual world title after also winning six years ago in Melbourne, but she was made to produce her very best by Cagnotto in a high quality duel between the two.

Cagnotto moved ahead in the second round with her best dive of the day as her forward two and a half somersault pike was rewarded with a score of 65 from the judges.

And she then consolidated her advantage in the fourth round as her lead grew to the biggest it had been all day.

However, He's exceptional reverse one and half somersault and twist saw her land a 66.3 to move her back in front with the very last dive of the competition.

Wang meanwhile was comfortably the best of the rest as she recovered from a poor second dive to add bronze to the silver she won in the same event at the world championships in Shanghai two years ago.