England's cyclists swept the medals in the individual pursuit at the Vodafone Arena in Melbourne.
Paul Manning, bronze medallist in Manchester four years ago, took gold ahead of Madison world champion Rob Hayles while Stephen Cummings won the bronze medal race.
Elsewhere, there were silver medals for England's Jason Queally and former Northumbria University student Victoria Pendleton, while Chris Hoy of Scotland lost his Commonwealth title as he had to settle for bronze in the kilometre.
Weightlifter Jo Calvino finished an agonising fourth in the women's under-48kg weight category.
Nine-times British champion Calvino lifted 64kg on the snatch and 83kg on the clean and jerk to set new British records.
Olympic silver medallists Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson started their badminton campaign with a 21-6 21-6 victory during the 5-0 win over the Seychelles.
England - whose squad includes Newcastle Eagles trio Fab Flournoy, Andrew Bridge and Andrew Sullivan - look the likeliest threat to New Zealand and Australia's hopes of winning basketball gold and they started their campaign with a win, downing Barbados 75-59. The women overcame Mozambique 79-41.
Scotland women's task of qualifying for the hockey semi-finals was made more difficult after they lost their opening match to New Zealand. The Scots were trailing 2-0 with six minutes to go after goals and, although Samantha Judge pulled one back, they could not force an equaliser.
England are top of the table in the both the women's and men's table tennis team events at the end of day one. The women beat both Sri Lanka and Vanuatu 3-0 overall, while the men won all three of their matches 3-0 against Kenya, Guyana and Tuvalu. Saltburn teenager Paul Drinkhall played in and won his match in each of the three.
England's Peter Nicol and Nick Matthew advanced to the last 16 of the squash tournament with 3-0 wins.
In the lawn bowls, the home nations' men's pairs teams enjoyed a fruitful session as England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales all won. In the women's tournament Scotland triumphed but England were beaten.
