World championships runner-up Yulia Pakhalina was ranked first in the women's 3m springboard preliminary on August 25 in the Olympic diving pool.

The Sydney Olympics synchronized champion grabbed the lead in the fourth dive and held on to top the preliminary in 347.04 points.

"I started the competition very well today," said the 26-year- old Russian. "I am in very good shape and I feel very well. I am very satisfied with my dives in this phase."

Canada's Blythe Hartley qualified for Thursday' s semi-final with the second highest score of 321.33.

"I was nervous this morning, but I did great. It was excellent, " she said.

"Tomorrow I will be diving after some great divers and this may make me a little nervous, but I just want to go out there and have fun," she added.

Reigning synchronized 3m board winner Guo Jingjing from China went into the semi-final after finishing third 319.71 while her synchronized event partner Wu Minxia was sixth.

Chinese team coach Liu Henglin was confused by the duo's low- form performance.

"It is weird that the two displayed such low-form performance as if they had not waken up yet,"said Liu.

"They said they could not control their dives. They were not in right states during competition,"he said.

Medal contenders Vera Ilyina, paired up with Pakhalina to win in Sydney four years ago, was fourth.

Athens platform bronze medalist Loudy Tourky from Australia took the fifth position while Barcelona worlds champion in platform Emilie Heymans of Canada came seventh in 33 divers.

Following are the qualifiers for the women's 3m springboard semi-final after Wednesday's preliminary in the Olympic diving pool here:

1. Yulia Pakhalina, Russia, 347.04 points

2. Blythe Hartley, Canada, 321.33

3. Guo Jingjing, China, 319.71

4. Vera Ilyina, Russia, 311.97

5. Loudy Tourky, Australia, 310.65

6. Wu Minxia, China, 306.96

7. Emilie Heymans, Canada, 305.04

8. Irina Lashko, Australia, 303.66

9. Paola Espinosa, Mexico, 301.14

10. Tania Cagnotto, Italy, 298.77

11. Ditte Kotzian, Germany, 295.50

12. Rachelle Kunkel, United States, 294.75

13. Olena Fedorova, Ukraine, 290.43

14. Jane Smith, Britain, 282.90

15. Nora Barta, Hungary, 279.24

16. Ganna Sorokina, Ukraine, 269.52

17. Jenna Dreyer, South Africa, 267.84

18. Juliana Veloso, Brazil, 265.29