Alicia Blagg and Rebecca Gallantree made smooth progress with an encouraging performance in the 3m Synchro prelim on day two of the World Championships in Kazan.
The British divers, who won Commonwealth gold at Glasgow 2014 last season, scored 287.40 to progress fourth behind China (312.90), Canada (302.01) and Australia (291.90).
After two steady required dives left them in second place on 97.20, Blagg and Gallantree scored 65.10, 61.20 and 63.90 for their three optionals to qualify with minimum fuss, ranking in the top five across all five rounds.
“That was pretty steady,” admitted Gallantree, who is competing in her fourth World Championships in Kazan.
“It wasn’t anything special but good enough to get to the final which is all we needed.”
Blagg added: “The requireds were good. We’ll be hoping to get up to 100 in the final and then we’ll see from there.”
The Brits finished sixth at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona but will hope to improve their ranking in Russia, with the added incentive of an Olympic quota place on offer for the three podium finishers.