Aussie divers hit the mark in Rio

Australian divers Samantha Mills and Esther Qin have once again underlined their Olympic medal potential, winning a bronze in the three-metre synchro final at the Diving World Cup in Rio.

Mills and Qin had already qualified a start for Australia in this year's Olympics, after finishing third at the 2015 World Championships.

The Australians have not finished outside of a medal in world-class competition in the past two years.

Mills and Qin made a strong start to Saturday's (Sunday AEDT) final, sitting second after the opening dive, but then dropped to fourth for the next three dives.

But while other combinations faltered, the Australians held their nerve to finish strongly to take the bronze.

The result comes after Australia failed to qualify teams for the women's platform synchro and the men's three-metre synchro on the opening day of the World Cup.

The men's platform synchro team of Domonic Bedggood and James Connor finished 10th in the qualifying round of competition overnight, and will dive for the chance of Olympic qualification on Monday morning (AEDT).