BARCELONA, Spain – Li Shixin of China defended his gold medal in the men’s 1-meter springboard Monday, giving the world’s pre-eminent diving power its fourth straight world title.

Li earned 460.95 points through six dives at the Montjuic Municipal pool after rallying back from a sub-par start.

Four-time European champion Illya Kvasha of Ukraine took silver with 434.30 points, while Alejandro Chavez of Mexico earned bronze with 431.55.

China has won seven of the last eight world titles in the event and two of the three in diving so far at the world championships. The country looks set to collect another later in the women’s 10-meter synchronized platform from Chen Ruolin and Liu Huixia.

The final was billed to be a battle between Li and Matthieu Rosset after the Frenchman finished only 0.5 points behind Li in the preliminaries on Saturday.

Rosset looked to be in contention when he entered the fifth round in the lead, but he blew his entry and Li nailed a difficult inward pike with 2 1/2 somersaults for a single-dive highest score of 86.70 to take command.

Rosset, who was aiming for France’s first diving medal at the worlds, finished in sixth place.

But with Kvasha pushing, the 25-year-old Li still had to execute a tough forward pike with 3 1/2 somersaults on the last dive of the final to assure he retained his title.

On Saturday, Wu Minxia and Shi Tingmao won the women’s 3-meter synchronized springboard. The next day, China’s run of three consecutive world titles in the men’s synchronized 10-meter platform was broken by German pair Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding.