Fireworks get Tokyo's no-frills opening ceremony underway

TOKYO: Thy sky over the National Stadium in Tokyo exploded in indigo and white as fireworks marked the start of the opening ceremony for the Olympics on Friday, celebrating the world's best athletes set to compete amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Postponed for a year, organisers were forced to take the unprecedented step of holding the Games without fans as the novel coronavirus is on the rise again, taking lives around the world. Even the opening, normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities was eerily silent, with fewer than 1,000 people in attendance, strict social distancing rules and signs calling on the spectators to "be quiet around the venue."