The quartet of Tobias Buck-Gramcko, Hannes Wilksch, Pierre-Pascal Keup and Nicolas Heinrich, blitzed the previous record by two seconds in stopping the clock in 3min 58.793sec and Germany's first gold at the Oderlandhalle velodrome.

Russia had set the record at 4:00.972 at the 2017 Junior Track World Championships in Montichiari in Italy.

Kevin Vauquelin, Antonin Corvaisier, Clement Petit and Florian Pardon of France finished second in 3:59.543.

Defending champions Russia, with a new line-up on Ivan Novolodskii, Vlas Shichkin, Ilia Schegolkov and Egor Egoshev, held off New Zealand to claim the bronze medal in 3:59.955.

The women's team pursuit was won by Italians Giorgia Catarzi, Camilla Alessio, Eleonora Gasparrini and Sofia Collinelli.

The quartet clocked 4:26.060 to take gold as New Zealand finished just 0.007 seconds behind as Emily Paterson, McKenzie Milne, Ally Wollaston and Samantha Donnelly were edged into silver by the finest margins.

Elynor Backstedt, Ella Barnwell, Eluned King and Sophie Lewis won the bronze medal for Britain in 4:27.853.

Denmark's Benjamin Hertz took victory in the men's scratch race, holding off Anderson Arboleda Ruiz of Colombia, and Chilean Jacob Decar Zuniga, for gold.

The men's keirin was won by Greek cyclist Konstantinos Livanos.

Australia's Sam Gallagher and Esow Esow of India, who both medalled in the men's team sprint yesterday, completed the podium in second and third respectively.

The competition is due to continue tomorrow.