Chinese "dream team" continued their dominance when Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan won the men's synchronized 10m platform on Thursday while the host's talent Thomas Daley ignited the Olympic Aquatics Centre with his first discipline show at the 18th FINA World Cup.

In one of the tightest competitions yet, the teams behind China constantly changed positions throughout the six-round final.

Silver went to Ivan Alejandro Garcia/German Sanchez of Mexico who were back in 11th, of the 12 teams competing, after the first round before moving up to the silver medal spot.

Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein of Germany, Olympic and world silver medalists, took the bronze, 23.88 points behind China's winning total of 481.29.

"Everybody could be our threat," said Cao Yuan after the final.

He said Daley was a diving talent and had many good points to be worthy learning from.

"He (Daley) is a genius and also very friendly. He always say 'hi' to us and sometimes make some jokes. A funny boy," said Cao.

In the fourth round, Daley and Peter Waterfield of Britain, egged on by a vociferous home crowd, scored a huge 91.08 points for their reverse three-and-a half-somersaults with tuck.

It was enough to move them into third place and a shot of a medal.

"The crowd really, really help us in the competition. They give us that buzz that helps us through. There's a great advantage to having a home crowd," said the 17-year-old genius, who was regarded as the host's medal hope for this summer's London Games.

But the pair, in their first competition since the 2011 World Championships, dropped their very next dive, the difficult forward four-and-a-half somersaults, and eventually finished seventh.

"That one dive cost us the medal. It was a bit nerve wracking because it was our first competition of the year," said the world champion in 2009 Rome.

"I've always got the same mentality for every competition and I'm going to do the best I can," Daley showed his confidence to the Olympics.

With two days of diving remaining, China has now won every title at this event.