Olympics 2012: the inaugural event at the main stadium - in pictures

Justine Kinney achieved the envious feat of becoming the first person to win a competitive race at the Olympic Stadium. She crossed the line first in the women's 400m hurdles heat one in a time of 59.97secs. She narrowly beat Emma Peters, pictured in the background in lane six, to that honour, and said afterwards: "It feels like I've won a major championship!" Photograph: guardian.co.uk

There were a host of other events taking place as well. Here, in the women's 5,000m heats, the athletes wait for the start gun Photograph: guardian.co.uk

The runners were bunched together early in the race but soon became stretched Photograph: guardian.co.uk

The men's pole vault was one of the first field events to take place Photograph: guardian.co.uk

... for some the bar was set just too high Photograph: guardian.co.uk

There were four rounds of men's hurdles heats Photograph: guardian.co.uk

The men's 100m will be the premier event at the Games in two months' time - and in years to come some of the sprinters participating at this event may vie for Olympic medals. The fastest qualifier was Dan Talbot in a time of 10.37 secs Photograph: guardian.co.uk

The upper tier is empty, but throughout the rest of this competition - which runs until Wednesday - spectators will be able to watch the events from on high Photograph: guardian.co.uk

The triple jump competitions are under way as the skies around the stadium darken Photograph: guardian.co.uk

In the women's 100m, competitors wind down after crossing the finish line Photograph: guardian.co.uk

That's it for the first day in the new stadium. Over the coming days, Olympics organisers will look to smooth any problems with the venue in readiness for the arrival of the world's finest athletes, not to mention a cavalcade of spectators and media Photograph: guardian.co.uk