It was a startling world record that got last night's crowd rocking at the Anna Meares Velodrome near Brisbane, but the last tune those green and gold clad fans were left hearing was God Defend New Zealand after a ride to redemption for the Kiwi men's sprint team.
Australia's men's pursuit team put down the performance of the opening evening of the Commonwealth Games track programme, smashing the world record over 4000 metres by over half a second.
Their delight was clear as they travelled to all parts of the stadium to celebrate with their delirious fans.
The final say of the evening went to Eddie Dawkins, Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster, however, who delivered a commanding victory to secure back-to-back Commonwealth Games gold medals.
It came after the trio were narrowly pushed into silver at Rio, and finished well outside the top three at the recent world champs.
"We had a disappointing worlds," Mitchell said. "We concentrated more on individual events rather than as a team. We did not gel. After the worlds, we focused on technical things. The win here was special."
They weren't the only Kiwi sprinters to shine, with Emma Cumming and Natasha Hansen winning New Zealand's first sprint medal of any colour in Games history.
"It's really nice to finally have a team that can be competitive," Hansen said. "We finished top five in the world championships and got a silver medal now. That's something we have lacked for a long time."
Bryony Botha, Rushlee Buchanan, Kirstie James and Racquel Sheath were no match for the Aussie favourites in their race for team pursuit gold, but had the honour of winning NZ's first medal of the Gold Coast games.
The only sour note was the disqualification of the men's pursuit team from the bronze-medal race, for having an illegal bike.
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