Qiu Bo, China's up-and-coming diving star, clinched the gold medal in men's 10m platform at the 18th Diving World Cup in London on Saturday.

Russian Victor Minibaev finished a far second while the bronze was earned by British Peter Waterfield.

Another Chinese diver Lin Yue was ranked the sixth.

The 19-year-old Qiu, champion at the 14th FINA World Championships last year in this event, entered the final in the leading position, but didn't start well in the first round of dive.

Yet he surged to the top soon and impressed spectators with his stable and flawless performances. In two of the most difficult dives his scores were above 100. In one of these extraordinary dives, six of the seven judges gave him 10 points, the full score, while in the other, the hardest one coded as109C which featured fast-spinning four and a half somersaults with tuck, he stunned people with 105.45 points.

The men's 10m platform diving event was China's weakest category, as the diving powerhouse lost the title twice at the Beijing Olympic Games and Rome worlds. In Rome, Qiu was the runner-up.

But the diver proved his resolution to crown in the 2011 FINA Diving World Series in Beijing, where he received no less than 25 perfect 10s to score a historic 609.20 in the 10m event. Then in the 2011 World Championships held in Shanghai, Qiu won two gold medals in the platforms.

Dubbed "Mr Calm" for his stability, Qiu said his biggest enemy was himself.

"I went through a really difficult time after losing the gold in Rome," he said. "Then I realized that confidence is essential in the competition and one must conquer his fear so as to win."

His teammate Lin Yue started as a second and maintained his advantage to the fifth round, where he got tied with Minibaev.

In the last round, however, he reached the pool before fully unfolding his body and created no small splashes, scoring just 59.40 points to drop to the sixth.

British 31-year-old veteran Waterfield cheered his home crowd with a wonderful start but blundered in the second dive. However, he managed to catch up bit by bit and won the host a second medal.

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