Offbeat diary of the Olympics: Day One

The first day of the London 2012 Olympics finally got under way with 19 sports, ranging from shooting to tennis to swimming, being contested at venues across the UK.

The men's cycling road race dominated the headlines for much of the day, but here's a look at what else was happening while all the sport was being played out.

During the men's cycling road race the riders had to negotiate a dog that ran out on to the course in Twickenham, south-west London.

The large black canine ran straight across the road, and back again, but luckily all the cyclists managed to avoid it.

Earlier all the talk was focused on the British team and Mark Cavendish who was hotly tipped to take Olympic gold but finished well down the pack.

Hundreds of spectators lined The Mall in central London to see Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan win the 250km race, which was the most watched event in the first full day of Games.

Despite his disappointment, British cyclist Mark Cavendish was full of praise for the noisy crowd lining the road race route:

"All our ears are ringing, it was tremendous the whole way round, it was something we will remember for ever and ever."

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Hundreds of empty seats during a swimming session at the Aquatic Centre, in east London, on Saturday morning prompted questions for organisers Locog.

According to the BBC's Nick Hope areas high in the stands at the sold-out event were full but there was no-one sat in several hundred more expensive seats lower down.

Locog said some seats for press and media were empty and it was looking into who should have been in the seats and why they weren't there.

Meanwhile the first day of action at the Eton Dorney rowing venue in Buckinghamshire seemed to go fairly smoothly except for reports of queues of up to 50 minutes for free water on the site.

Locog admitted that despite there being five free water points and 19 concessions selling water there were queues and pledged to work to reduce the wait for spectators.

There were also long queues for free water inside the Olympic Park. Due to restrictions, spectators can only take a sealed 100ml container of liquid into venues and are advised to take empty bottles for filling at water fountains.

After her show-stealing movie debut alongside James Bond, in which she "parachuted" into the Olympic Stadium for the opening ceremony on Friday night, the Queen was back in action at the Olympic Park on Saturday morning.

Taking a tour of the east London site with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, she proved she had a head for heights as she was whisked up to the top of the 114.5m Orbit Tower.

There she was shown around one of the two viewing platforms by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Locog chair Lord Sebastian Coe.