However, Rebecca Wiasak defended her individual pursuit title to give Australia a gold-medal start on the opening night of competition.

The Australian trio of Nathan Hart, Matthew Glaetzer and Patrick Constable were upbeat despite the heart-breakingly close call to deny them a shot at a bronze medal overnight, Australian time.

The threesome notched a time of 43.497 seconds to triumph over Great Britain in their heat and put themselves in the mix for a medal shot with two heats to go.

But they could only watch as Germany narrowly eclipsed their time by 0.001 seconds – before both New Zealand, who posted the fastest qualifying time of 43.096 seconds, and France did likewise in the final heat.

New Zealand claimed the gold medal from the Netherlands later, while Germany beat France in the bronze medal race which so nearly featured Australia.

“It’s frustrating for sure. We came here to race finals, but at the same time, that’s sport,” Glaetzer said.

“We won the 2012 world title by that same margin. It’s sport. It happens.”

Glaetzer put in a powerful showing as the second wheel as Australia began to gain ground on Great Britain after a hot start by the home team, before debutant Constable flew home as the final rider.

Australia remained upbeat despite missing the medals, with the young team exceeding expectations – a margin of 0.01 seconds separating them from the third-ranked France.

“From third to fifth was within one-hundredth of a second, so we can’t be too disappointed,” Glaetzer said.

“My goal was to be top four. And it’s as close as you’ll ever get to getting top four.”

Wiasak’s stirring victory in the 3000m race was Australia’s only success on the opening day, with strong medal hopefuls Anna Meares and Steph Morton falling short in the bronze medal race for the women’s team sprint.

But it was a different story for Wiasak, who led from start to finish in a supreme display to post a time of 3 minutes 34.099 seconds – nearly eight seconds better than Poland’s Malgorzata Wojtyra – to claim gold.

The 31-year-old, who topped Wojtyra by nearly three seconds in qualifying, was defending the title she won in Paris 12 months ago.

Meares and Morton were among the gold medal favourites, but were narrowly beaten by Germany in the qualifying earlier in the day before suffering the same fate in the evening session – with Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel again toppling the Aussie duo, this time by 0.131 seconds.

Meanwhile, teammate Glenn O’Shea finished 15th in the men’s 15km scratch race and more than a lap behind Spanish winner Sebastian Mora Vedri.

O’Shea will now turn his focus to the Omnium starting on Saturday, Australian time.

-AAP