The New Zealand men's pursuit team smashed the national record during a special attempt on the sixth and final day of the national track championships in Invercargill on Saturday.
The team is in build-up mode for the world championships in Poland at the end of the month, and the riders were given the Invercargill track to themselves to try to lower the record, which stood at 4min 8.890sec.
They went well under in a time of 3min 59.593sec, just two seconds off the best time they managed at last year's Beijing Olympics, where they won bronze.
National records must be set in New Zealand.
"It's two weeks out from the world champs and we wanted to go fast tonight, we wanted to go sub 4min," team member Pete Latham said.
"We've had a heavy last few days of individual racing and training, so to actually go out and do it is great."
Latham was the reserve rider in Beijing last year and was not awarded the bronze.
At the time, he was recovering from a broken back sustained during a race in France, but he now feels he is in top shape to contribute to the New Zealand team's shot at world championship gold.
Latham was joined in the New Zealand team on Saturday by Wes Gough, Sam Bewley and New Zealand individual pursuit champion Jesse Sergent, while Marc Ryan sat out racing.
The men's pursuit team was not the only record-breaker on the night; Canterbury's Natasha Hansen broke the New Zealand flying 200m record.
Katri Laike was the only rider to add to Otago's medal haul on the final day of the national championships on Saturday when she won silver in the elite women's 8km scratch race.
Laike emigrated to New Zealand from Finland in 1993 after representing Finland in the 470 class in yachting at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
She finished ninth.
She has been one of Otago's elite female cyclists for the past five years.
Otago finished the week-long championships with 15 medals: four gold, five silver and six bronze.
The men's pursuit team of Alex McGregor, Shane Melrose, Joe Chapman and Brad Evans finished fourth when it was narrowly beaten by Southland in the ride-off for the bronze medal.
Southland was timed at 4min 21.442sec and Otago at 4min 22.860sec.
Bad luck befell Honor Davies, who crashed in the final of the women's keirin and was disqualified.
The New Zealand team for the world championships in Poland will be named today.
