Mitcham big threat to Chinese dive sweep

Australian rookie Matthew Mitcham stands as the man most likely to stop a Chinese clean sweep of the Olympic diving competition after qualifying for the 10m platform final in second place.

Mitcham challenged the Chinese duo of Huo Liang (549.95) and Zhou Luxin (526.20) throughout Saturday morning's semi-finals before nailing his final dive to finish with 532.20 points, just over 17 points behind leader Zhou.

Olympic debutant Mitcham's final five was one of the most difficult in the book but he made it look easy, scoring a perfect 10-points from one judge to post the highest individual dive score of the semi-finals.

Athens silver medallist Mathew Helm (485.20) will also be among the front runners for the final at the Water Cube after he qualified in sixth place.

Helm was keeping pace with Mitcham until a poor entry on his penultimate dive resulted in a slide down the rankings.

The Australian pair shape are the biggest threats to the Chinese divers as the host nation has won each of the seven diving events already held in Beijing.

Russian world champion Gleb Galperin (508.95) was fourth best and will also challenge for the medals.

However Germany's world No.1 Sascha Klein (382.85) was the big disappointment falling to reach the top 12 and eliminated from the competition in last place.

Mitcham failed to qualify for the 3m springboard final earlier this week but says he isn't daunted by diving for a medal against the unbeaten Chinese team.

"It is anybody's," he said of the gold medal race.

"One bad dive from anybody and you're out of contention."

And he's promised to improve his grand finale dive which scored almost 10 points more than any other effort by his rivals.

"It's not the highest I have scored for that dive," he said of his back two-and-a-half somersault with two-and-a-half twist.

"I know I can do it better still."