Yu Zidi, the 13-year-old Chinese swimmer, became the Games record-holder by blazing to gold in the opening full day of action Sunday.

The schoolgirl, who will be 14 next month, clocked the women's 200m butterfly gold in a Games-record 2min 05.08sec.

It was the first big title of her fledgling career less than two years before the Los Angeles Olympics.

"Just so-so," said a grinning Yu after collecting her medal.

Last year, Yu became the youngest medallist at the swimming world championships when she won a relay bronze aged 12.

The Games are being held in Japan, with one of the three sports at the Games being staged in Tokyo when a typhoon is set to make landfall, with the rest of the Games held in Nagoya and Aichi prefecture.

China is set to dominate the pool, winning six of the seven titles from day one.

The Games were declared open by Emperor Naruhito on Saturday.

The athletes will compete in more than 40 sports over the following two weeks, with the event finishing on 4 October.

Teams to be decided: The Olympic slots to be decided at the 2028 Games have faced issues along the way.

With over 11,000 athletes and 6,000 officials to cater for, organisers have been pushed to the limit since opting out of the usual athletes' village to cut costs. Rather than a village, competitors are staying in a mixture of hotels, temporary container-type huts and on board the Costa Serena cruise ship.

The IOC boss, Kirsty Coventry, visited the temporary huts on Sunday and described them as "beautiful" – although she accepted they were "a little tighter" than the same huts at this year's Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.

Japan will be eager for the sport to be successful after a turbulent build-up that saw players complain about the accommodation and a lack of rooms.

But a typhoon with heavy rain that struck Tokyo on Sunday could bring more trouble.

The equestrian venue at Tokyo was shut due to the weather and the start of competition delayed for a day until Tuesday.

Typhoon Dujuan will not hit until Monday, but the strong winds and rains are already expected to cause serious flooding in the capital Tokyo.

It will not be squarely on course for Nagoya but sogginess is expected there as well.

Iran was jubilant after a 79-70 win over China for men's basketball bronze.

Voters In South Korea have been going to the polls. South Korea received basketball gold for beating Japan 67-57 in the final.

Elsewhere in the sport, Smriti Mandhana broke the record for the most runs scored in T20 international cricket in the women's game as India defeated Bangladesh by 114 runs in the semi-final, while Shafali Verma hit her first century.

A shot at the title will be played by India against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, if the elements do not interfere.

Written by

Lakshya