Australia smashed its world record and all opposition to retain the teams pursuit title at the world track cycling championships in brilliant style.

The Australian quartet of Graeme Brown, Luke Roberts, Brett Lancaster and Peter Dawson clocked 3minutes, 57.185seconds for the 4000m, shattering their old world record of 3:59.383 and thrashing Britain by 3.444 seconds in the final.

France won its bronze medal race against Russia, but in a distant 4:04.119.

"Our goal today was to smash the world record and smash the Poms off the track, and we did both," said Dawson, who was in the team which won last year's title and set the record on the way to gold at the Commonwealth Games.

"It's been a long time coming, but to smash the world record by two and a half seconds is fantastic."

It was Australia's first gold of the championships, while Jobie Dajka in the sprint and Rochelle Gilmore in the 10km scratch race took the silver tally to seven.

The Australian pursuiters powered through the race and led the British by .410 of a second after the first kilometre, which they stretched to 1.211 as they went through 2000m in 2:01.638.

They clocked 57.636, 57.683 and 57.959 for each of the last three kilometres as the crowd at the Schleyer-Halle velodrome boisterously cheered the Australians home.

Dajka, 21, won his second silver for the week as Frenchman Laurent Gane once again beat him for gold after taking the keirin title off the Australian on Wednesday.

After disposing of France's 2001 world champion Arnaud Tournand in two races in the semis, Dajka won the first against Gane in the final and he looked like improving on the silver he won last year.

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