SHANGHAI -- Chinese teenager duo Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao led the women's 10m platform synchronized preliminary at the 14th FINA Swimming World Championships here on Monday.

Chen, 19, Olympic champion in the event, collected 335.34 points with Wang to lead all the way. Alexandra Croak and Melissa Wu finished second at 303.66, while Christin Steuer and Nora Subschinski from Germany took the third with 292.56.

"I was a little nervous," said Chen. "We were competing with ourselves in the event, and I will try my best in the final."

"I had a slow start because I felt a little nervous, but overall I competed at normal level in the preliminaries," said Wang, also 19, who won the Diving World Series in Beijing with Chen in March. "The final is more important. I won't let my family watch me dive because I will feel nervous. The pressure is there, the wheather might not be OK but I will try my best in the final."

Chen had won the event in the two previous worlds with two different partners. She and Jia Tong crowned in 2007 Melbourne worlds and won with Wang Xin in 2009 Rome worlds.

British duo Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow took the fourth in 290.28.

"Our goal in the final is just to do what we are doing right now. We performed well," said Barrow.

The final will be held later Monday.