New Zealand's women's team pursuiters have won silver at the Commonwealth Games.

The quartet of Bryony Botha, Rushlee Buchanan, Kirstie James and Racquel Sheath put in a stirling ride to just make the gold medal race at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane on Thursday night, but they were no match for their Australian foes in the final.

It was the first time the women's team pursuit had been raced at the Commonwealth Games, and Sheath said it was an honour to be the first New Zealand women's team to win a medal in the event.

MATT KING/GETTY IMAGES Australia complete the overlap of New Zealand during the women's team pursuit gold medal race on Thursday night.

"To come home with a medal was super special, especially with a crowd with so many Kiwis in it."

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GETTY IMAGES New Zealand compete in the women's 4000m team pursuit qualifying event at the Anna Meares Velodrome.

New Zealand were five seconds slower than Australia in qualifying, so it was always going to be an uphill battle to get near them in the final, and so it proved.

New Zealand came out strong to keep it neck-and-neck over the first quarter of the 4000-metre race, but the host nation quickly took control, pushing out to a two-second lead at the halfway mark.

The lead only continued to grow as the Australians got the Kiwis in their sights down each straight, catching New Zealand on the final lap to show their dominance. Australia went on to win in a time of 4:15.214.

​Still, silver was a top performance from the Kiwis. The same four riders finished sixth at last month's world championships, finishing behind two Commonwealth foes. Two of the team, Buchanan and Sheath, had to go through the heartbreak of finishing fourth to Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Earlier in qualifying, they had edged the Canadians by .153 of a second to make the gold medal race. Canada defeated England to win bronze.

Sheath said they were happy with how they had progressed.

"We knew Aussie were the team to beat from the get-go, they had an insane buildup and this was everything for them.

"We had the worlds beforehand and that was a benchmark for us.

"We went out there and gave it everything we had, unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough to beat the Aussies, but we had a feeling it wasn't going to be, so that's OK. We were stoked to come home with a medal fullstop."

Their qualifying time of 4.22.331 was an improvement on their time at the world championships.

Sheath said they felt they could dip under 4.20 on the Gold Coast, but it wasn't quite to be. Their time was not recorded in the final after they were overlapped.

The Kiwi women's team's strong showing was in stark contrast to the men, who qualified for the bronze medal race, but were later disqualified because one of their bikes did not match specifications.

Qualifying

Women's 4000m team pursuit: 4.22.331 for second fastest.

Final

Women's 4000m team pursuit: overlapped by Australia for silver.