Cycling: Hi ho it's silver

Jesse Sergent shows off his silver medal on the track at New Delhi last night. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The velodrome proved a fertile ground for medals last night but none were the colour New Zealand really wanted.

Feilding pursuiter Jesse Sergent was the best of the New Zealanders at the Indira Gandhi complex, finishing second by the merest of margins in the individual pursuit.

Sprinter Eddie Dawkins won bronze in the kilo time trial, but a mechanical problem prevented him from riding his best.

There had been genuine hope that New Zealand might walk away from the track last night with two golds.

Instead it was Australia that scooped the pot, taking all three golds on offer and sending an ominous message ahead of the rest of the meet.

Scott Sunderland and Anna Meares blitzed the field in the two sprint events, the kilo and the 500m respectively, while Jack Bobridge was a wheel-width too good for Sergent in the individual pursuit.

Sergent, 22, trailed by close to 2s at one stage but, using a bigger gear than Bobridge, mounted a stirring comeback that fell an agonising .398s short.

"We always knew it was going to be that close," Sergent said. "It was hit or miss at the end but I'm still happy with a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games.

"Me and Jack ride the pursuit almost completely different. He starts a lot faster and I'm a lot smoother out of the start. We knew it would come down to the last six or eight laps where I would have to pull him back."

To rub salt in an open wound, Sam Bewley was beaten by Michael Hepburn in the bronze medal ride-off, the Australian overtaking him two laps before the scheduled finish.

Southlander Dawkins became the first New Zealander to don a medal at the Commonwealth Games, but will feel like it was one that got away.

The gold was won by Australian Sunderland in a Commonwealth record time of 1m 01.411.

Dawkins should have secured silver but finished nine-thousandths of a second behind Malaysian Mohammed Tisin.

Dawkins, who was called up to the dais by a wrong name, completed his kilometre in 1m 02.777.

"It was not what I expected to come out of it," Dawkins admitted.

"I knew going through my ride that my time wasn't going to be too flash. I had a few mechanical mistakes at the start and it showed at the end of my ride."

Dawkins said that when he tucked into the aerodynamic position his bars turned. It is a problem that has been plaguing him this week and one he admitted had to be sorted out fast.

"I'm disappointed but the team event is our main focus so hopefully it is onwards and upwards," he said.

Aucklander Myron Simpson was second out of the gates in the kilo and posted a cracking 1m 03.449, finally securing the unkindest position of all - fourth. Marc Ryan clocked 1m 04.521 in finishing seventh.

There was no medal either for Alison Shanks on the opening day of the track cycling, but the Dunedin rider will consider it a more than useful exercise.

Shanks rode the 500m time trial and finished a creditable sixth.

"I wasn't expecting too much out there really. It was just a great chance to have a hit out before the big one on Friday," Shanks, 27, said.

"The way the schedule worked out, it meant I could come out here and feel the race atmosphere and get on that start line."

The race was an Australian one-two, with defending champion Meares (33.758s, a Games record) beating Kaarle McCulloch. Wales Becky James won bronze.

Shanks was using the 500m time trial to get some racing on the track ahead of her specialist event, the individual pursuit. She will also race the road time trial in the second week of the Games. It was the first time the 2009 world pursuit champion had ridden this event at a major meet.