The antipodeans showed they will be force in London, with the New Zealand women's team, and the Australian men clocking the fastest times in the qualifying round of the team pursuits.
The New Zealand trio of Alison Shanks, Jaime Nielsen and Lauren Ellis clocked 3:24.005 on a windy Cali Velodrome which is roofed but open to the elements on the sides.
New Zealand will ride off against Great Britain in the final tomorrow with the British boasting two of their world champion squad in the line-up.
World champion silver medallists USA, with two of their three riders back, will take on Lithuania for the bronze medal with the much vaunted Australian and Canadian teams missing out.
In the men's race meanwhile, reigning world champions Australia were the class of the field when they recorded 4:02.739 in the windy conditions. Their line-up included world under 23 time trial champion Luke Durbridge and fellow team pursuit world champions Rohan Dennis, and Michael Hepburn.
The New Zealand quartet of Jesse Sergent, Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan and Aaron Gate were second fastest in 4:04.612, comfortably ahead of Colombia and Denmark who will fight it out for the bronze medal.
Tomorrow's first full day of competition includes the first day of the men's omnium, team sprint, men's kilo time trial and finals of the team pursuit.
Elite men team pursuit qualifying
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|
| 1 | Australia | 0:04:02.739 |
| Luke Durbridge | |
| Rohan Dennis | |
| Michael Hepburn | |
| Mitchell Mulhern | |
| 2 | New Zealand | 0:04:04.612 |
| Sam Bewley | |
| Aaron Gate | |
| Marc Ryan | |
| Jesse Sergent | |
| 3 | Colombia | 0:04:06.118 |
| Juan Esteban Arango | |
| Edwin Avila | |
| Arles Castro | |
| Weimar Roldan | |
| 4 | Denmark | 0:04:06.794 |
| Lasse Norman Hansen | |
| Casper Folsach | |
| Rasmus Quaade | |
| Christian Ranneries | |
| 5 | Spain | 0:04:07.589 |
| Eloy Teruel Rovira | |
| Pablo Aitor Bernal Rosique | |
| Sebastian Mora Vedri | |
| David Muntaner Juaneda | |
| 6 | Germany | 0:04:08.982 |
| Nikias Arndt | |
| Henning Bommel | |
| Stefan Schäfer | |
| Jakob Steigmiller | |
| 7 | Lokosphinx | 0:04:10.400 |
| Kirill Sveshnikov | |
| Roman Ivlev | |
| Maksim Kozyrev | |
| Sergey Shilov | |
| 8 | Belgium | 0:04:11.081 |
| Gijs Van Hoecke | |
| Jasper De Buyst | |
| Moreno De Pauw | |
| Jonathan Dufrasne | |
| 9 | Switzerland | 0:04:11.824 |
| Damien Corthesy | |
| Cyrille Thiery | |
| Olivier Beer | |
| Loic Perizzolo | |
| 10 | Hong Kong | 0:04:11.847 |
| Ho Ting Kwok | |
| King Wai Cheung | |
| King Lok Cheung | |
| Ki Ho Choi | |
| 11 | France | 0:04:11.950 |
| Bryan Coquard | |
| Vivien Brisse | |
| Julien Duval | |
| Kevin Labeque | |
| 12 | Ukraine | 0:04:13.511 |
| Lobov Oleksandr | |
| Polishchuk Maksym | |
| Radionov Mykhailo | |
| Lagkuti Sergiy | |
| 13 | Netherlands | 0:04:14.271 |
| Wouter Haan | |
| Roy Pieters | |
| Nick Stöpler | |
| Michael Vingerling | |
| 14 | Chile | 0:04:15.370 |
| Edison Bravo | |
| Luis Sepulveda | |
| Antonio Cabrera | |
| Gonzalo Miranda | |
| 15 | Russia | 0:04:15.691 |
| Artur Ershov | |
| Ivan Savitskiy | |
| Valery Valynin | |
| Nikolay Zhurkin | |
| 16 | United States | 0:04:21.349 |
| Ian Moir | |
| Matthew Lipscomb | |
| Gregory Daniel | |
| Zack Noonan | |
| 17 | Brazil | 0:04:23.864 |
| Robson Dias | |
| Armando Camargo Filho | |
| Luiz Amorim Ferrao Tavares | |
| Thiago Nardin | |
Elite women team pursuit qualifying
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|
| 1 | New Zealand | 0:03:24.005 |
| Lauren Ellis | |
| Jaime Nielsen | |
| Alison Shanks | |
| 2 | Great Britain | 0:03:24.849 |
| Laura Trott | |
| Wendy Houvenaghel | |
| Sarah Storey | |
| 3 | United States | 0:03:26.027 |
| Sarah Hammer | |
| Dotsie Bausch | |
| Lauren Tamayo | |
| 4 | Lithuania | 0:03:26.468 |
| Ausrine Trebaite | |
| Vaida Pikauskaite | |
| Vilija Sereikaite | |
| 5 | Australia | 0:03:26.494 |
| Annette Edmondson | |
| Sarah Kent | |
| Josephine Tomic | |
| 6 | Ukraine | 0:03:26.779 |
| Galyuk Svitlana | |
| Kalitovska Lesya | |
| Shulika Lyubov | |
| 7 | Canada | 0:03:27.609 |
| Tara Whitten | |
| Laura Brown | |
| Stephanie Roorda | |
| 8 | Belarus | 0:03:28.046 |
| Aksana Papko | |
| Alena Dylko | |
| Tatyana Sharakova | |
| 9 | Belgium | 0:03:29.096 |
| Jolien D'hoore | |
| Kelly Druyts | |
| Maaike Polspoel | |
| 10 | Netherlands | 0:03:30.549 |
| Laura Van Der Kamp | |
| Amy Pieters | |
| Winanda Spoor | |
| 11 | Korea | 0:03:30.975 |
| Sungeun Gu | |
| You Ri Kim | |
| Ahreum Na | |
| 12 | Poland | 0:03:31.531 |
| Malgorzata Wojtyra | |
| Edyta Jasinska | |
| Katarzyna Pawlowska | |
| 13 | China | 0:03:32.207 |
| Li Huang | |
| Cui Wang | |
| Chao Mei Wu | |
| 14 | Germany | 0:03:32.668 |
| Stephanie Pohl | |
| Mieke Kröger | |
| Madeleine Sandig | |
| 15 | Russia | 0:03:33.053 |
| Alexandra Goncharova | |
| Elena Lichmanova | |
| Lidia Malakhova | |
| 16 | Japan | 0:03:34.790 |
| Maki Tabata | |
| Kanako Kase | |
| Minami Uwano | |
| 17 | Kong Hong | 0:03:39.227 |
| Zhao Juan Meng | |
| Xiao Juan Diao | |
| Wan Yiu Wong | |
| DNF | Brazil | |
| Janildes Fernandes Silva | |
| Uenia Fernandes Da Souza | |
| Clemilda Fernandes Silva | |
