Australia, who claimed two golds on the opening day of the Championship in Denmark last night, added another two when they took the women's team sprint and the women's team pursuit.

Taylor Phinney of the United States won the men's individual pursuit for the second year in a row and Denmark's Alex Rasmussen won the men's scratch race to give the hosts their first gold of the Championships.

Sir Chris suffered a serious crash at the same Ballerup track 13 months ago and missed last year's World Championships as a result.

"I'm over the moon," he said.

"The year hadn't gone well but to win that just feels amazing.

"Last year I was sitting at home [injured] watching the Championships on television, so it's lovely to be back again.

"We hadn't won a gold medal yet here and obviously the team starts to feel a little bit of pressure from the media, so it's nice to take that pressure off a bit.

"Whilst it wasn't in my mind, to come back here at the venue where I had a nasty crash last year, to make amends for that is very special indeed."

Sir Chris, 34, though, expects his rivals to step up a gear as the London 2012 Olympics approach.

A trademark power surge saw him claim victory for his third keirin title in four Championships.

Sir Chris, who recovered from a crash in his first heat, said: "If you keep on winning, they're going to look for ways to try to beat you.

"People have found that if they let me get to the front, it's hard to get past me.

"So they're trying to get ahead of me, stall my speed and leave it as late as possible.

"That's when accidents happen, like at the World Cup last year.

"If I take control of the race, then I've got more of a chance of winning and that's what I try to do."

That tactic worked to perfection as Sir Chris held off Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang and Maximilian Levy of Germany.

Sir Chris' triumph was Britain's first gold of the Championships and second medal of the day, after the women's team pursuit squad of Joanna Rowsell, Wendy Houvenaghel and Lizzie Armitstead took silver behind Australia.

Meanwhile, Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish finished fourth in the women's team sprint, while Chris Newton came fifth in the scratch race and keirin hope Matt Crampton ended up seventh overall.

But Australia were again the dominant team.

The country were shamed into making big changes to the way they run the sport in the wake of their single-medal achievement at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where Britain won seven of the 10 titles.

Their determination seems to be paying off two years before the next big Olympic rendezvous in 2012.

A day after Anna Meares reclaimed her world 500 metres time trial crown and Cameron Meyer gave a points race masterclass to win his second successive crown, tonight's two-gold haul was a team effort.

Meares paired up with Kaarle McCullough to secure gold in the two-lap team sprint in a new world record time of 32.923sec.

The pair had beat their own world record, set last year in Poland, of 33.149 during qualifying which they dominated in a time of 33.037.

Going below the 33-second barrier had McCullough beaming, especially as the event will be part of the Olympic programme for the 2012 Games.

McCullough said: "We're so happy so have defended our title, and really excited obviously going into the London Games being the best team in the world."

Meares warned, however: "You look at the Chinese and the improvements they've made this year, and I'm sure the British team of Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish will be working really hard over the next couple of years, being in their home town.

"Then throw in the Dutch team, it's going to be really close in London."

Australia's women hit the top of the podium again when they dethroned Britain in the final of the team pursuit, with New Zealand setting a new world mark on their way to beating the United States for the bronze.

Ashlee Ankudinoff, Sarah Kent and Josephine Tomic (pictured) proved unbeatable as they surged to an impressive winning time of 3:21.748, just missing out on the new world mark set by their Oceanic rivals minutes earlier.

"I'm really stoked," said Tomic, who is also the reigning world omnium champion.

"We came here after winning [the World Cup] in Beijing and that gave us a bit of confidence that we can match it with the best in the world."

Britain, the defending champions, made it to the final but the Britons were left trailing from the outset and never launched a convincing fightback before finishing in a time of 3:22.287.

Although missing out on gold, the Kiwi trio were smiling after their new world mark came in the wake of Jesse Sergent's silver in the men's individual pursuit.

Alison Shanks, who missed out on the chance to defend her individual pursuit title from 2009 on yesterday's opening day before being beat to the bronze, was especially happy.

"We would have loved to have got the chance to go out and race for gold, but it's just wonderful to go out and get that world record time," she said.

"We went out really smoothly and managed to execute our ride to perfection."