Australian divers have picked up their fourth medal at the world aquatics championships, with the experienced double act of Anabelle Smith and Maddison Keeney splashing to a silver in the 3 metre springboard synchronised final in Doha.

But the Aussies' second world championship podium place as a pair on Wednesday could only be a support act on another day of dominance from the all-conquering Chinese team.

Smith, now 31, and 27-year-old Keeney added another medal to their collection after taking bronze at the 2016 Olympics and also at the 2022 worlds in Budapest.

But this time, they upgraded to silver with only the brilliance of Chen Yiwen and Chang Yani, who totalled 323.43 points from their five dives, outdoing the Aussie duo's 300.45 total.

Britain's Scarlett Mew Jensen and Yasmin Harper took the bronze (281.70).

For Smith, it secured a third world championship medal 13 years since she won her first as a teenager with Sharleen Stratton in the same event in Shanghai 2011.

It took the Australian tally to four medals in the diving pool, headed by Alysha Koloi's gold and Li Shixin's silver in the 1m springboard events.

The evergreen veteran Li, though, who also won a bronze in the mixed 3m and 10m team event, was unable to add to his tally on Wednesday as he had to settle for 10th place in the men's 3m springboard final, behind another dazzling Chinese display.

Li, now 35, once used to win world titles for China before moving to start a new life in Australia, but he will have been impressed by the new powerhouses from his native country as Wang Zongyuan and Xie Siyi finished a dominant one-two, taking the Chinese tally of diving golds to six for the week.

China didn't enter the first two events of the week but have looked unbeatable since then, with Wang winning his second gold in Doha thanks to a series of stellar dives giving him a total of 538.70 points. Xie took the silver in 516.10, while Li ended with 406.40.

Elsewhere in the world aquatics championships, the Australian men's water polo team bounced back after their opening group defeat to Croatia by hammering South Africa 29-7 with Blake Edwards their spearhead, scoring six times.

Australian captain Nathan Power said: "It's a test for us to show that we can execute at the highest level. That qualifies us for the knockout stages now, which is a big one for us and I look forward to it."