TOM DALEY and Rebecca Gallantree won a brilliant gold for Great Britain on Wednesday at the World Aquatics Championships in Kazan.

Daley delivered a stunning fourth dive in their six-stage combination in the team event, with four of the six judges scoring it a perfect 10.

The British pair totalled 434.65 points, putting them ahead of Ukraine, who took second place, and bronze medallists China.

It was the first time a mixed team event had been staged at the World Championship, and victory stunned Daley.

"We really don't know what happened there," Daley said. "We went into the competition as a bit of a warm-up for our individual events.

"But to come away with a result like that is amazing. I had my highest score ever on the armstand, Becky did one of her best front dives in competition she's ever done.

"I was a little bit nervous doing the dive from three metres because I'm not used to springboard diving. I actually thought I was going to hit my head on the board but I got nines for that dive."

The 21-year-old added on British Swimming's website: "I've never had 10s before for my armstand and then that happened which is a positive and then the back went down pretty nicely as well."

Daley had been focusing on his speciality 10m platform individual event, which begins on Saturday, with Gallantree competing in the 3m springboard from Friday.

Thirty-year-old Gallantree, who took 10th place alongside Alicia Blagg in the 3m synchro on Saturday, said of the shared success with Daley: "I can't quite believe it. It's a little bit surreal at the moment.

"To be honest, I'm gutted I didn't do a front like that in the synchro but obviously there's lots of positives to take out of it and I'm really looking forward to my individual now."

Their triumph followed the bronze won by Jack Laugher and Chris Mears in the 3m synchro on Tuesday, and gave Daley his second World Championship gold - six years on from landing his 10m platform title.

He took two dives from the 10-metre board, and one from the three-metre springboard, with Gallantree taking two from the lower board and one from the high platform.

Daley's effort in the fourth round, an armstand back triple somersault, delivered a score of 101.5 points, unsurpassed in the competition, but there was considerable pressure on his shoulders heading to Britain's last dive.

The Olympic bronze medallist showed his class when it mattered though, as he produced a near-immaculate back three-and-a-half somersaults, earning 99 points that made sure of the destiny of the title.

Ukraine's Oleksandr Gorshkovozov and Iuliia Prokopchuk finished 8.2 points adrift.

There was earlier success for Tonia Couch, as Daley's fellow Plymouth-born diver reached her fourth 10-metre platform World Championship final.

The 26-year-old was ninth in the preliminaries and stepped up her performance to take seventh place in the semi-finals with a total points score of 339.70.

China's Qian Ren set a high standard with a leading score of 423.15, establishing her as the gold medal favourite ahead of Thursday's final.

Fellow Plymouth Diving competitor Sarah Barrow could not join Couch in the final, negotiating the heats before finishing 18th and last at the semi-final stage.

Couch's success means Great Britain are guaranteed a place in the event for next year's Olympics in Brazil.