Aussies smash team pursuit world record in a night of raining gold

3:48.012! And there was plenty more gold for Australia at the end of rainbows in Poland.

Sam Welsford, Kelland O'Brien, Leigh Howard and Alex Porter smash their way to team pursuit gold at the 2019 Track World Championships in Poland (Getty) Source: AFP

Leigh Howard, Alex Porter, Kelland O'Brien and Sam Welsford comfortably eclipsed Great Britain (3:50.810) in the gold medal match-up of the 4,000m team pursuit, with Cameron Scott racing in earlier rounds to also earn gold. 

The four smashed the previous world record of 3:49.804 - also theirs - set at the Anna Meares Velodrome at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane last April.

"I'm speechless at the moment to be honest," Alex Porter said. "It's a pretty surreal feeling. Going fast in training but we didn't imagine we'd be able to do something like that.

"To be able to pull it out here and bring home that world title...then come home with the rainbow..it's cherry on the cake, that's an amazing feeling."

Coach Tim Decker had this to say about the world record:

Amazingly, Sam Welsford backed up half an hour later to take gold in the men's scratch.

Australia's Samuel Welsford celebrates after winning the Men's Scratch Race at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Poland. (Getty) Source: Getty

Australia won a tight tussle in the women's team pursuit final against Great Britain.

Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Georgia Baker and Amy Cure brought it home in a time of 4:14.333, just hundredths of a second faster than the Brits (4:14.537) with Mitchelton-Scott rider Alex Manly also earning gold from her work in the earlier rounds.

Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Amy Cure, Georgia Baker and Alex Manly show off their team pursuit wares at the 2019 UCI Track World Championships (Getty) Source: Getty

Their coach summed up their achievement here:

And they had this message to their fans back home:

Yesterday, Steph Morton and Kaarle McCulloch won gold in the team sprint in a closely fought duel against Russia.