Dame Sarah Storey began the British gold rush, nearly a month on from her women's hour record attempt, as she secured victory in the in the C5 500-metres time trial in 37.947sec ahead of her team-mate Crystal Lane, who took silver in 37.877sec.

Storey's triumph was followed immediately by another success for a stalwart of the British team, as 36-year-old Jody Cundy retained his C4 kilometre title in style, recording a sea-level personal best of 1min 04.381.

Slovakia's Jozef Metelka won silver in 1:06.886 ahead of Jiri Bouska, while the Czech cyclist posted a time of 1:09.115 to take bronze.

"It's the first kilo for a long while where I haven't been able to move and rolling around like a drama queen on the floor," Cundy said after his victory.

"It's great to keep getting faster and faster - to keep getting sea-level personal bests and to be getting faster on a personal level that's a really good move."

There was further success for the British team as Commonwealth Games gold medallists Sophie Thornhill and pilot Helen Scott secured world champions rainbow jerseys, after winning the visually impaired women's race in 1:07.553, before Neil Fachie and Pete Mitchell retained the men's title in 1:01.787.

London 2012 Paralympic champion Zhangyu Li took gold for China in The Netherlands ©Getty Images



China also enjoyed an excellent day on the Dutch boards, with their team claiming three golds, led by London 2012 champion Zhangyu Li, who took victory in the men's C1 kilometre event in 1:14.445.

Li finished ahead of home favourite Arnoud Nijhuis of The Netherlands and Fernand Rodrigo Lopez of Argentina, whose times of 1:15.843 and 1:21.001 saw them earn silver and bronze respectively. 

Jianping Ruan and Jieli Li added to the Chinese medal tally by winning the the women's C4 and C1 500m time trials respectively.

The United States joined Britain and China in winning multiple gold medals with Jamie Whitmore winning the women's C3 500m time trial in 43.842, ahead of Germany's Deniese Schindler and Australia's Simone Kennedy, who took silver and bronze in 43.894 and 44.734 respectively.

Joseph Berenyi then secured further success for US as he triumphed in the men's C3 kilometre time trial in 1.09.836, with Belgium's Diedrick Schelfhout two seconds adrift of the American in second.

The home crowd were treated to success in the women's C2 500m time trial as Alyda Norbruis took gold for The Netherlands in 39.959, while Spain earned a single victory on the opening day through Alfonso Cabello Llamas, victorious in the men's C5 kilometre event in 1:04.806.

The World Championships are due continue tomorrow with six gold medals up for grabs in the pursuit events.

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