Team England soared to a stunning victory in the men's 4000m team pursuit, finally getting the better of old rivals Australia.

Having lost to the Australians on several occasions, Charlie Tanfield, William Tidball, Ethan Vernon, Henry Hobbs and Josh Charlton were determined that this time it would be different.

And different it certainly was, as the English cyclists brought home gold in style and set a Commonwealth Games record along the way.

Crossing the finish line in 3:47.092 minutes - almost a second quicker than the silver medallists - was extra special due to the nature of their rivalry.

"I feel like my whole career has been about the team pursuit and it being us versus the Aussies," said Tanfield, part of the team who lost to Australia in the Paris 2024 Olympic final. "It feels great. It’s a good rivalry and it’s really motivating.

"It’s exciting because we’ve got some new guys coming through. Henry is competing at his first senior major competition like this, so it’s really exciting for the future. It feels good to bring the gold medal back to the UK."

Gold was a welcome upgrade on the team pursuit silver won at Birmingham 2022, with Tanfield the sole returning member of that squad. 

After coming fourth in the morning's qualification competition, the team posted a vastly improved performance when it mattered most. 

"It’s amazing," Tanfield reflected. "We had a lot of work to do from this morning, so it was hard to keep the morale high in the team. But we pulled together a really good strategy in the end and I was just ecstatic when we crossed the line. 

"It’s my third Commonwealth medal, so I’m just going to make the most of it. It was great to share that experience with the lads as well." 

In qualifying, the team finished the 4000m in 4:16.534 minutes, leaving them with plenty of work to do heading into the evening's medal event. 

After fighting off a recent illness, Charlton was replaced by Tidball in the afternoon session. 

"In the first round, we went with the strategy we’d been doing in training," said Tanfield. "Unfortunately, Josh had been struggling with illness over the last few days, so he didn’t quite have it on race day. 

"We swapped Will in and tweaked the turns a little bit, and it just clicked. All of a sudden, we were chopping around some really fast laps and we were like, 'Yeah, this is it.' 

"Then I saw the coach at the side of the track walking the splits against the Aussies, so we knew where we were. I could hear a few of the lads were struggling behind me, and it was just a relief when we finished and managed to hold it together. 

"We’ve got to keep the morale high between rounds and keep believing that we can win. If you have that mentality that you can win, that’s the main thing. It’s about making sure we all stay positive and knowing that when it all comes together, we’re dangerous and we can take the win." 

The celebrations will be put on pause, with plenty more track cycling action to come for Team England over the coming days. 

Charlton, Vernon and Tanfield will all race in the men's individual pursuit on Friday - an event Tanfield won at Gold Coast 2018.

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