He defends 3m title

He, who is also the Beijing Olympic champion, had been locked in a tight tussle with compatriot Qin Kai until the penultimate round when Qin's forward four and half somersault attempt went badly awry.

The 25-year-old Qin was off balance from take off and became horribly off centre throughout his somersaults, barely pulling out of the final somersault to splash into the pool.

A distraught Qin, who had won the three metres springboard synchro gold with Luo Yutong earlier in the competition, was awarded just 32.30 points for the dive and he crashed from duelling for the gold down to fifth place.

"I feel really sad, because I have trained very hard over the years. Maybe it is a precious experience for me," Qin told reporters.

"I wiped the water off the board but it was still slippery. That's why I missed. But I don't feel regretful, maybe its just not the right time for me to win."

The 24-year-old He posted an impressive 107.25 points with his final dive, a forward two and half somersault with three twists, to finish the competition on 554.30 points and become the first man to successfully defend the world title since Russia's Dmitri Sautin did it in 2001.

"I feel sorry for Qin. He had been in the lead all the way until he made an error on dive five," said He.

"I was exhausted after the prelim and semi-final yesterday, so the gold medal is really satisfactory."

Russian duo Ilya Zakharov (508.95) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (493.55) filled out the podium while 2007 world champion Qin recovered to finish fourth on 481.90 points.

China have won all eight diving golds on offer so far in Shanghai, with just the women's three-metres springboard and men's 10-metres platform titles to be decided.

Britain's Jack Laugher hailed his eighth place finish in the 3m springboard final at the World Championships as the greatest performance of his young career.

Laugher, the 16-year old double junior world champion, also secured a place in next year's World Series with his display, a vast improvement on his 11th place in qualifying.

"I don't think I've had a better competition in my life - to have proved myself here is fantastic," he said

"I tried really hard to put the nerves to the back of my mind and because I didn't have any expectation for the final, I managed to cope really well.

"It's just absolutely amazing and it's really helped my confidence to have performed on the world stage like this.

"I thought the World Series was a possible long-shot for me and to have proved myself here is fantastic.

"I know I need to improve my tariff for next year and I'll look to learn some new dives in the close of the season."