Xu Xiang took the lead after a good first dive Photos from Barcelona

Guo scored 617.94 points with silver going to Russia's Julia Pakhalina (611.58) and bronze to China's Wu Minxia (589.80).

"We are the strongest divers in the world and we expect to get more medals in the coming events," said Guo, who won silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

China's other diving titles in Barcelona have come from Lao Lishi and Li Ting in the women's synchronised 10-metre platform and Xu Xiang in the men's one-metre springboard.

In Friday's other medal event, Russians Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova won the duet synchronized swimming with 99.084 points.

Japan's defending champions Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda took silver with 98.084, edging Spain's Gemma Mengual and Paola Tirados on 96.667 into third.

Spain's men and Italy's women are on course to defend their water polo titles after the preliminary round.

After three games Spain, Hungary, the United States and Italy gained byes into the men's quarter-finals.

In the women's event Hungary, Canada, Holland and the United States went through to the last eight.

Russia heads the medals table with 10 overall, including five golds, while China has nine overall. Italy has two golds and Australia, Japan, France and Canada one gold each.

Three more diving events are set for Saturday and Sunday, with the eight days of pool races beginning on Sunday.