The world champion Emma Finucane led Great Britain’s track sprinters to a flying start in the Olympic velodrome with an irresistible success in the women’s team sprint.

In a thrilling final against New Zealand, the British trio of Finucane, Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell, came from behind to win gold and break the world record for a third time, confirming that British women’s sprinting is very much in the ascendancy.

“Lining up on that start line next to these two, I knew our bodies had to go through something surreal to get that gold medal,” the 21-year-old Finucane said. “We nailed every process that we wanted to, and I couldn’t be more proud of the team. Looking up at the crowd and seeing everyone cheer, I was just in disbelief that we actually won and crossed the line first.”

As Finucane described, world records were broken “left right and centre” and at every stage of the competition by the British team.

It was a dominant victory that had looked possible from the qualifying sessions earlier in the evening. On their way to the gold medal, the trio broke the world record three times, in just three hours of racing, taking the Olympic title with a time of 45.186sec.

But the final was not as straightforward as their path through the heats to the gold medal race. Behind after the first lap, Capewell and Finucane fought hard and reversed the situation to leave the New Zealanders trailing by almost half a second as they crossed the line. Germany, who beat Netherlands in the bronze medal race, finished third.

While for Finucane, her career has quickly achieved lift-off, Marchant, bronze medallist in the sprint competitions at the Rio Olympics, has had a long wait for gold. “It really does not get much better than that,” she said.

“It shows the hard work we have put in. I always believed there were rewards for hard work. We have come together as a team and have put so much work into learning to deliver on the day.”

Watched by her two-year-old son Arthur, Marchant was finally able to enjoy standing on the top step of the Olympic podium. “He was a bit overwhelmed – as were we – but it was special to have him there,” she said. “He’s a huge part of my journey as well.”

Capewell’s late father Nigel, a former paracyclist who finished fourth as a Paralympian, had once warned his daughter: “Don’t settle for fourth.”

“The journey to get here for everyone has been up and down,” Capewell said. “I’ve had my own personal battles, I wish my dad was up in the stands watching it but I know he’s super-proud of me.”

In the end, though, there was no danger of settling for anything, as the trio took the title with a blistering last lap from Finucane. “I literally saw red,” she said. “Katy delivers the first lap, Soph delivers me for the last lap and I gave it 120%. I saw red and I think that’s what it takes to win. To break world records, you have to go deeper than your body has ever been before and I found that. We all found that on the day. But I think we enjoyed ourselves too.”

The high-speed sprints predicted on the wider track materialised, as time after time the world team sprint record fell, first to New Zealand, then Great Britain and Germany, before the British trio broke it again with a time of 45.338. As it turned out, there was still even more to come.

As the three sprinters celebrated their gold medal, elsewhere on the track Team GB’s cyclists began their medal hunt in earnest, with a series of solid rides that suggested further medals will come as the week progresses.

In the men’s 4,000m team pursuit qualifying Ethan Hayter, Oliver Wood, Dan Bigham and Ethan Vernon, set the fastest time for most of the session, until the Australian quartet of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien, rode quicker.

With the top four going forward to race for the gold and silver medals, the Australian pursuiters’ pace was fast enough to come close to another world record as they set a time of 3:42.958. Team GB lodged a marginally slower 3:43.241, with a very solid performance.

With Denmark in third place and Italy fourth, the quartet will now go forward to compete for gold and silver on Wednesday evening. France, New Zealand, Belgium and Canada will compete for the bronze medal.

In the men’s team sprint qualifiers Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnbull and Jack Carlin, raced second from last and led briefly, until the Dutch trio of Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen and Roy van den Berg, set an Olympic record and qualified as fastest for the sprint finals on Tuesday.

However, on a night that Finucane said was “100% a big statement by the women sprinters” that had been a long time coming, the key thing for Team GB was to establish momentum.

“We all have individual targets, but getting gold on the first night gives us all momentum,” Finucane said. “We’re just going to take each race as it comes. But this gives us lot of confidence for the rest of the week.”