Beijing gold medallist Matthew Mitcham on Friday won the first of what he hoped would be four gold medals at the Australian diving championships in Sydney.
Mitcham took out the one-metre springboard, despite coach Chava Sobrino asking the 25-year-old to drop the discipline.
"I love the one-metre because it's a lot of fun," Mitcham said.
"Chava asked me not to do it because he's worried about my schedule this weekend, but I'm glad I did it."
He finished ahead of Mexico's Kevin Chavez with New Zealand's Liam Stone winning bronze.
Mitcham is hoping to back up his victory with gold in the three-metre springboard, the three-metre synchro and his Beijing gold medal event, the 10-metre platform.
And despite the concerns of his coach, Mitcham is not ruling out following a similar program at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
"Because the Glasgow diving will actually be held in Edinburgh, I'm hoping the schedule might be a bit more spread out," he said.
Coach Sobrino had good reason to be concerned about Mitcham's stamina, after a scratchy performance earlier on Friday in the preliminary rounds of the 10-metre platform.
But the gold medallist bounced back in the semi-final, posting a score over 500 and nailing two near-perfect dives.
"It feels good, I feel happy and I'm loving being here," Mitcham said.
"And I think the judges can see that too. It's just great to be in this place."
In other events on Friday, Olympian Anabelle Smith qualified first for Sunday's three-metre springboard final, while Mitcham was the top-rated diver going into Sunday's platform final.
On Saturday, Beijing silver medallist Melissa Wu will start as strong favourite in the women's platform final, while Mitcham will look for his second gold, this time in the three-metre springboard.
