Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 3:00 PM

Australian diver Robert Newbery scraped into the final of the men's three-metre springboard with a points total of 460.35 in the semi-final on Tuesday.

With the first 12 of 18 divers qualifying for the final, Newbery was in 11th position after the semis behind China's Chong He, who led the field with 547.25 points.

World champion and team-mate Qin Kai was third in the semi-finals as China look to continue their domination of the diving after winning five out of five golds in the competition so far.

Australia's other diver in the semi, Matthew Mitcham, finished in 16th position on 427.45, not enough to qualify for the final.

Canada's Alexandre Despatie, a silver medallist in the event in Athens, finished second to also qualify, storming back in the semi-finals after finishing a lowly ninth in the preliminaries.

He, 21, performed one of the toughest dives of the semis, pulling off a forward two-and-a-half somersault with three twists in a pike position to earn 102.60 points from the judges.

World number two Mexico's Yahel Castillo finished fourth on 504.55, while five-time Olympian Russian Dmitry Sautin also qualified in eighth place.