The 19-year-old clocked an unrivalled time of 1 hour 55min 12.1sec to finish the 10 kilometre race 0.8 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Keri-Anne Payne, the two-time open water world champion and Beijing 2008 silver medallist.

"We didn’t have a special tactics for this race," said Xin.

"Things happened like that.

"I am very happy with the outcome of the event."

Ecuador’s Samantha Arevalo came third in 1:55:15.9, thus becoming the first female athlete from her country to qualify for an Olympic marathon swimming event.

The other seven direct qualifiers for Rio 2016 were Australia's Chelsea Gubecka, Japan's Yumi Kida, South Africa's Michelle Weber, Poland's Joanna Zachoszcz, Venezuela's Paola Perez, Slovenia's Spela Perse, and Czech Republic's Jana Pechanova. 

The five continental spots were won by Spain's Erika Villaecija, Canada's Stephanie Horner, Malaysia's Heidi Gan, New Zealand's Charlotte Webby and Egypt's Reem Mohamed Hussein Elsayed Kaseem. 

Chile's Kristel Kobrich, also a long-distance specialist in the pool, missed out on qualification after finishing 23rd, while Spanish star Mireia Belmonte, a double silver medallist in the pool at London 2012, fell short having touched in 28th position.

The top 10 ranked swimmers from the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan have already secured places at this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The men’s event is due to take place tomorrow with an entry list comprising 61 athletes.

Reigning Olympic champion Oussama Mellouli will head the field as the Tunisian star looks to qualify for the Games for the second consecutive time by performing strongly. 

South Africa’s Chad Ho is expected to be in contention for a place, having become the world champion over the five kilometre distance last year.