Britain claims its first gold in Shanghai

Olympic hosts Britain claimed their first gold medal of the world aquatics championships on Tuesday as China continued to sweep all before them in the diving events.

Keri-Anne Payne, who took silver at the 2008 Beijing Games, swam the women's 10km open water in 2hr 1min 58.1secs, winning ahead of Italy's Martina Grimaldi and Marianna Lymperta of Greece and ramping up hopes for London 2012.

Meanwhile China put one hand on the men's 3m synchro diving crown as Olympic and world champion Qin Hai and partner Luo Yutong dominated the morning heat ahead of the final later on Tuesday.

Qin and Luo amassed 452.19 points to win the preliminary from Russia's Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov, with Patrick Hausding and Stephan Feck of Germany third and Americans Kristian Ipsen and Troy Dumais fourth.

China have won all four diving titles so far -- as well as every heat -- as they seek an unprecedented clean sweep of all 10 gold medals in the event, two years after winning seven at the 2009 championships in Rome.

"The opponents from Germany and the US are strong but I'm not nervous," said Luo. "We can't control other divers' performance, but we can do the best in our own dives. I think we are confident in ourselves."

With three days of competition completed, China lead the way with four gold medals -- all in diving -- while second-placed Russia have two, both from synchronised swimming.

Water polo is also under way at the 16-day, biennial championships, with the blue-riband swimming events kicking off on Sunday.