Australian diver Maddison Keeney has qualified for today’s World Championships final of the 1-metre springboard in Budapest in the gold medal position.

21-year-old Keeney finished her five dives in Friday’s preliminary round with a total of 283.80, more than five points clear of China’s Yiwen Chen with Malaysia’s Jun Hoong Cheong qualifying third.

In further good news for Australia, Esther Qin, the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the 3-metres, will also contest today’s 1-metre final after finishing seventh in the preliminary round.

Keeney, who teamed up with Anabelle Smith to win bronze in the 3-metre synchro at last year’s Olympics, started slowly on Friday, sitting 28^th in the 42-strong field after the first dive.

But her second dive lifted her to outright ninth, and her third dive, her highest scoring dive for the afternoon, lifted the Western Australian into the lead, from where she was never headed.

Keeney’s strength has always been her ability to attempt dives no other divers are capable of. In Friday’s event, no other diver attempted a dive with a degree of difficulty rated three or harder.

Four of Keeney’s five dives were rated at least three, and included dives with a 3.2 and a 3.1 degree of difficulty.

The two toughest dives contested by China’s Chen were rated 2.6.

While the difficult dives have sometimes brought Keeney unstuck, it has also guaranteed her high scores if she is successful.

The men’s 1-metre preliminaries was the only other event contested on Friday, with Australia’s Kevin Chavez and james Connor finishing 24^th and 26^th respectively, missing qualification for the final.

Saturday night will also see the finals of the mixed platform synchro, with three-time Olympian Melissa Wu teaming up with Commonwealth Games gold medallist Domonic Bedggood, and the men’s 3-metre springboard synchro, with Chavez and teenager Matthew Carter representing Australia.