Tokyo Olympics: China wins three gold medals as GB women beat Japan in football

Eleven gold medals are available to be won on the first day of the delayed games

Flag bearer Yousuf Almatrooshi of the United Arab Emirates leads his contingent during the athletes' parade at the opening ceremony.

Flag bearer Yousuf Almatrooshi of Team United Arab Emirates leads the team out during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Members of the United Arab Emirates Team are seen during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Flag bearer Yousuf Almatrooshi of Team United Arab Emirates during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Flag bearers Hannah Mills and Mohamed Sbihi of Team Great Britain lead their team out during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Italy's delegation parade during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Flag bearers Harmanpreet Singh and Mary Kom Hmangte of India lead their contingent in the athletes parade during the opening ceremony.

Flag bearers Hedaya Wahba and Alaaeldin Abouelkassem of Team Egypt during the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Flag bearers Cate Campbell and Patty Mills of Team Australia lead their team during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Flag bearers Anna Korakaki and Eleftherios Petrounias of Team Greece lead their team in during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Flag bearers Yusra Mardini and Tachlowini Gabriyesos of the Refugee Olympic Team lead their team out during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Performers are seen during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach and Japan's Emperor Naruhito wave during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The Japanese flag is raised as the national anthem is sung during the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Performers are seen during the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Performers in action during the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Performers dance during the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

A performer is seen acting during the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Fireworks explode during the opening ceremony.

Fireworks illuminate over the National Stadium during the opening ceremony of 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Fireworks illuminate over the National Stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Members of staff hold signage inside the stadium before the opening ceremony.

Kabuki actor Nakamura Kankuro lights an Olympic cauldron during the arrival ceremony for the Olympic torch in Tokyo, Japan.

An Olympic flame torch.

The Blue Impulse Japan Air Self-Defence Force aerobatic display team fly over the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building during the arrival ceremony for the Olympic torch.

People watch a performance by Blue Impulse.

People take photos of the Japan air force aerobatic squadron Blue Impulse.

A general view outside the stadium as fireworks are let off during the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

China's Yang Qian won the first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics in the women's 10-metre rifle competition on Saturday as the delayed games launched in a stadium with no fans.

Qian set an Olympic record of 251.8 to triumph over Russia's Anastasiia Galashina and Switzerland's Nina Christen, who took home silver and bronze respectively.

On a day with 11 gold medals up for grabs, Ecuador's Richard Carapaz triumphed in the men's cycling road race, with Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar taking bronze.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led tributes to his country's silver medal winner Chanu Saikhom Mirabai, who came second to China's Hou Zhihui in the 49kg weightlifting.

China picked up their third medal in fencing, with Sun Yiwen defeating Romania's Ana Maria Popescu in the final.

In the football, Team GB women beat hosts Japan 1-0 in a group stage match, with Ellen White scoring the only goal of the game.

The games were declared open in an eerily empty stadium on Friday after defying a year-long pandemic delay and lingering coronavirus threats that will make them perhaps the most unusual Games in history.

Japan's Emperor Naruhito made the announcement against the backdrop of thousands of vacant seats at Tokyo's 68,000-capacity Olympic Stadium, after Covid-19 forced organisers to ban spectators at all but a handful of venues.

"I declare open the Games of Tokyo," said the monarch, wearing a white surgical mask.

The stripped-down ceremony, simplified to reduce risks from coronavirus, unfolded in front of fewer than 1,000 VIPs and several thousand athletes.

In one visual highlight, nearly 2,000 synchronised drones formed a revolving globe over the stadium, to a cover version of John Lennon's "Imagine".

A reduced parade of about 5,700 athletes, far lower than the usual numbers, filed into the stadium, not all of them socially distanced but all wearing masks.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach acknowledged the Games would be "very different from what all of us had imagined."

But "today is a moment of hope", he said in an address.

The 16-day Games, with 339 gold medals across 33 sports, have a surreal air after the pandemic compelled organisers to make this the first Games with virtually no spectators.

Athletes are tested daily but they are performing on the biggest stage under the constant risk that a positive test could wreck their Olympic dreams.