By Scott Dougal, PA International

England's team pursuiters were beaten by a world record-breaking Australian quartet in the final at the Commonwealth Games tonight.

While the home four did little wrong, they were simply outclassed by a formidable Australian unit who beat the previous best set by Germany at the Sydney Olympics by over a tenth of a second.

England finished in four minutes and 2.655 seconds - easily a Commonwealth gold-winning time in any other year - but they were well beaten by the Aussies who complete the 16 laps in 3:59.583.

As a reminder of the Antipodean supremacy in cycling, the Australian team were helped to the starting line by three of their road-racing team - two of whom were fresh from the Tour de France, Stuart O'Grady and Baden Cooke, and one, Cadel Evans, a gold medallist here already.

The Englishmen - Bradley Wiggins, Paul Manning, Bryan Steel and Chris Newton - struggled early on, losing around a second to their rivals over the first half of the contest.

And the gap was only stretched with Chris Newton dropping off the end as it became apparent that the Australians were motoring with more than Germanic efficiency.

Australian Graeme Brown could hardly believe it.

"I knew we were going really fast because of the gear we were in - you know when you're pedalling fast," he said.

"I'm over the moon."

Whatever the result, the meeting gave British cycling fans the chance to see in the flesh team pursuiters from these isles compete at the highest level for the first time since three of those here tonight were pipped to World Championship gold by Germany.

Unlike the World Championships, there was not a big field of contenders - with only New Zealand likely to challenge the two finalists and even they were outsiders.

That made tonight's race more like a one-off Ashes test, similar in nature to the one which saw Great Britain's rugby league team capitulate Down Under.

It did nothing to lessen the drama with the English team desperate to deny the Aussies, who have dominated on the track - winning four of the five golds on offer before tonight.

While the victory was not as convincing as the one seen on the rugby pitch, it was apparent early in the race that the Australians could only lose the race, England would have to rely on a slip by the visitors.

As successful as the British Cycling Federation have been in promoting home talent, they have been comprehensively out-done by their Australian counterparts.

The Aussies swept the men's sprint medals, did the same in the road time trial and could repeat the feat a third time in the road race on Saturday.

That will see their medal winners from the time trial joined by the three veterans from the Tour de France - including a stage winner in individual pursuit gold medallist Brad McGee.

Fortunately for the English, McGee chose to take tonight off but he was not needed by his compatriots who were simply unbeatable on the night.