SWIMMING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - ROME
Diving: 17 July - 2 August Synchro: 18-25 July Open water: 21-25 July Water polo: 19 July - 1 August Pool: 26 July - 2 August Coverage: BBC TV and red button, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sport website

Gallantree improved on her 25th-place finish in the Beijing 3m event

Britain's Rebecca Gallantree set a new personal best on her way to seventh place in the women's 1m springboard at the World Championships in Rome.

The City of Leeds diver scored 267.55 points in her first top international final, but was never in a position to challenge for a medal.

"All went to plan, I'm really pleased to get two PBs," said the 24-year-old.

In the 10m synchro event, City of Sheffield pair Monique Gladding and Megan Sylvester finished sixth.

The 1m competition was won by Russia's Julia Pakhalina with 325.05, ahead of China's Wu Minxia in second and fellow Chinese diver Han Wang in third.

Gallantree far outstripped her performance in Beijing last year, where she could only manage a finish of 25th in the women's 3m springboard event.

"I wasn't sure what to expect from my performance but I went into the event wanting to enjoy myself," she added.

"I scored 17 points higher this morning than ever before and I went six points beyond that tonight. I really enjoyed it today."

China's Chen Ruolin and Xin Wang produced a spectacular performance to take gold in the women's 10m synchro, with the United States earning silver and Malaysia picking up a surprise bronze.

The British pair of Sylvester and Gladding dug deep for their final two dives, pushing themselves up into sixth place.

Sylvester, who only turned 15 earlier this month, came into the World Championships having placed second in the individual event at last year's European Juniors and fourth at the world equivalent.

Twenty-eight-year-old Gladding provides the experience and was fourth at last year's European Championships.

Elsewhere on the opening weekend of the championships, British synchronised swimmer Jenna Randall reached the final of the women's solo technical event, finishing her preliminary in eighth place.

"That was my highest score in a solo competition," she said. "It felt ok but my combined spin could have been better.

"I know I can perform it better and so it was disappointing not to do that here."

On Monday, teenage double Olympic finalist Tom Daley makes his first appearance of the championships in the preliminaries of the 10m platform.

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