Tasmanian Belinda Goss has snared Australia's first gold medal at the opening round of the UCI Track World Cup in Manchester on Friday.

The 25-year-old proved too strong in the final sprint to claim victory in the scratch race ahead of Russian Evgeniya Romanyuta and American Shelly Olds, with Sydney's Skye Lee Armstrong fourth.

"I'm really stoked," said Goss, who won bronze in the event at the 2009 World Championships.

"I've managed a few podiums on the track but it's really exciting to win one."

In the men's keirin Great Britain's Sir Chris Hoy was unbeatable leading from start to finish to win gold.

Victorian Jason Niblett finished fourth, while his compatriot Shane Perkins was bundled out in the second round and finished ninth after crossing the line third in the B final.

In the women's sprint, Olympic silver medallist Anna Meares finished fifth after losing her quarter-final match-up with China's Shuang Guo.

The Queenslander qualified seventh fastest and won her first round against Russian Victoria Baranova but in the quarter-finals Guo got the upper hand to knock Meares out of medal contention.

But she won the ride off for fifth to eighth to collect valuable world championship qualification points.

Her teammate Kaarle McCulloch qualified eighth fastest but was bundled out of the first round by Germany's Miriam Welte.

Reigning Olympic and world champion and home crowd favourite Victoria Pendleton won the sprint gold, but not without a fight.

Pendleton took the first of the best-of-three races against Guo but the Chinese sprinter snatched victory in the second race, forcing Pendleton into a third race to decide the gold medal.

Great Britain, as expected on their home track, were dominant claiming four of the six gold medals on offer on day one of competition.

The Manchester World Cup is being staged over three days from October 30 to November 1.

The world's star track cyclists will line up in Melbourne for the second round at Hisense Arena from November 19-21.