Diving stars Wang Zongyuan and Cao Yuan sit atop the men's 3-meter springboard standings after Monday's semifinal at the FINA World Championships. 

Wang tallied 547.95 points while his Chinese compatriot Cao picked up 482.50 to highlight the competition in Budapest.

Cao closed strong with a typically classy finish after earning 91.2 points for his forward 4.5 somersault tuck. The 27-year-old remains one of the sport's biggest fan favorites, as that score was met with well-organized "Cao" chants from Chinese fans at the event in Hungary's capital.

Following a neat performance from his cohort, Wang kept challenging himself and successfully pulled off the dive of the event so far, a forward 4.5 somersault tuck with a 3.8 degree of difficulty and 9 seconds across the board. The Olympic silver medalist in this event from last year's delayed Tokyo Summer Games recorded 102.60 points for that effort, making the 20-year-old an easy No. 1 seed going into Tuesday's business end of the men's 3m springboard.

Cao and Wang will now battle for the top individual honor after joining forces to win the men's 3m synchronized springboard on Sunday. Their victory accounted for China's first diving gold at the Danube Arena, with the duo collecting 459.18 points to finish comfortably ahead of Great Britain's silver medalists Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding, while Germany's Lars Rudiger and Timo Barthel rounded out the podium with bronze.

Laugher ranks third behind the sensational Chinese duo after the men's 3m springboard semifinals, with the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics 3m synchronized champion registering 469.65 points in this individual faceoff, buoyed by a mark of 85.80 from his forward 2.5 somersault 3 twist pike.