Facing rivals England in a contest dubbed by the Velodrome announcer as the "Ashes of cycling", the home team of Leigh Howard, Sam Welsford, Kelland O'Brien and Alex Porter did not disappoint an expectant crowd.

Watched by the Duchess of Cornwall and Australian track cycling royalty in the form of Meares, they became the first team in history to dip below the 3min 50sec mark.

Having been pushed in the opening half of the race by the English team, containing three of the four riders who won the world title for Britain two months ago, Australia roared away in the closing 2,000 metres.

To the roar of a home crowd, the Australian team finished in a time of 3:49.804, lowering the world record mark of 3:50.265 set by Britain to win the Olympic title at Rio 2016.

England’s Kian Emadi, Ethan Hayter, Oliver Wood and Charlie Tanfield were forced to settle for the the silver medal in 3:55.310.

The podium was completed by Canada, who saw off a Welsh team which competed in the bronze medal ride after New Zealand were disqualified for using a bike which failed to meet International Cycling Union (UCI) regulations.

Australia's decision to send only a small team to the World Championships in Appeldorn to prepare for the Commonwealth Games certainly seems a justified one after the first night of competition.

Their women's team pursuit squad of Annette Edmondson, Amy Cure, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Alexandra Manly produced a superb ride to clinch the gold medal.

While it was not the world record level performance of their men’s squad, the Australian team stormed across the track to catch New Zealand in the gold medal ride.

Both teams would be joined on the podium by Canada, who overcame a scare when two of their riders touched wheels.

They remained upright to claim a comfortable victory over England by finishing in 4:21.493, with their rivals three seconds off the pace.

An Australian hat-trick of titles was earned by team sprinters Kaarle McCulloch and Stephanie Morton.

In front of their former team-mate Meares, the duo clinched the gold medal in a Games record time of 32.488sec.

New Zealand’s Natasha Hansen and Emma Cumming were left with the silver medal, while England’s Lauren Bate and Katy Marchant saw off competition from Wales’ Rachel James and Eleanor Coster to win the bronze medal ride.

Edward Dawkins, Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster were the favourites heading into the men’s team sprint competition and the New Zealand trio delivered in fine fashion.

They defended the title they claimed at Glasgow 2014, clocking a time of 42.877 in the final, with the three-time world champions and Rio 2016 silver medallists seeing off the competition of England.

In a celebration reminiscent of Australian tennis legend Pat Cash, when he won at Wimbledon in 1987, Dawkins leap-frogged the barriers and joined his family in the crowd.

The English team of double Olympic champion Phillip Hindes and his team-mates Joseph Truman and Ryan Owens finished in 43.547.

Bronze was claimed by Australia, who beat Canada clocking 43.645.

Scotland's Neil Fachie was another Glasgow 2014 champion who returned to the top of the podium.

Having won the men's blind and visually impaired 1,000m time trial with Craig McLean four years ago, Fachie triumphed with his new pilot Matt Rotherham in equally impressive fashion.

The duo missed out on lowering their own world record of 59.460 but still comfortably secured the title in 1:00.065.

The silver medal was earned by Wales' James Ball and pilot Peter Mitchell in 1:00.900, while the Australian pairing of Brad Henderson and Tom Clarke won bronze in 1:01.512.

There was also a successful title defence for England’s Sophie Thornhill and her pilot Helen Scott in the women’s tandem sprint competition.

The duo added to their double gold at last month’s Para Track Cycling World Championships in Rio by beating Australia’s Jessica Gallagher and Madison Janssen in straight rides.

With only three pairings competing in the event, only the gold medal was awarded.