James Denny kicked off his World Championship debut with a 26th place finish in the opening 1m Springboard event.
The 21-year old, who won 10m Synchro silver with Tom Daley at last year’s Commonwealth Games, scored 309.60 for his six dives as Ukraine’s Oleg Kolodiy took the 12th and final qualification spot on 361.55.
And the City of Leeds diver admitted the 1m had been an encouraging warm-up for his 10m Synchro – in which he will be diving with Matty Lee – later in the Championships.
“This is my first ever World Championships so it was a bit nerve-wracking going into the event,” said Denny.
“But it’s a nice little event just to get the cobwebs off ready to go for synchro later in the competition.
“I think the key for us in that is to just be steady. Of course we’re aiming to do some great dives but we’re also aiming not to drop any dives so if we do six dives on our head, we’ll be happy wherever we end up.
“Me and Matty have started diving together this season so being able to dive out here is another chance to get some great experience and hopefully a PB but we’ll have to see.”
Denny performed consistently to score more than 50 points for five of his six dives but a score of 31.50 for his fourth dive saw him slip out of contention for final spots.