It's been a long time coming but the Olympics are here at last!

Postponed by 12 months due to the coronavirus pandemic, there was a very real fear these Games wouldn't happen at all.

Yet, after an opening ceremony mixing poignancy with hope in Tokyo, the 32nd Olympic summer Games are officially underway!

Over the next two and a bit weeks, Stats Perform's man on the ground, Peter Hanson, will bring you daily updates from life in Tokyo.

Fireworks, flags, magnificent drones and mixed fashion successes at the opening ceremony 

Amid all the uncertainty over these Games, it was genuinely rather heart-warming to see the athletes arriving at Tokyo's Olympic Stadium.

The flags over 200 nations were waved, as hordes of athletes were paraded in front of a little under 1,000 delegates and dignitaries.

Some teams were looking quite dapper (kudos Team GB), while the sight of topless Tongan, Pita Taufatofua, was a welcome one.

There were a couple of fashion faux pas (those green Germany tracksuits…wow). But whatever controversy there may have been, we are (officially) underway!

And perhaps most impressive was the 1,824 drones used to illuminate the Tokyo sky, switching from the Olympics emblem to a light-up globe.

Dealing with jet lag…

So far, it's been a busy start work wise in Tokyo with writers' briefings and plenty of content to be produced…but due to the fact I have to quarantine life has been consigned to the hotel thus far.

One of the issues to contend with has been jet lag and trying to adjust to being in a different time zone – something I've yet to fully achieve with regular wake-up calls at 2.30am in the morning.

It's not been a problem for Team GB sprint star Dina Asher-Smith, though, who says she has learnt her lesson from a previous bad experience at the Beijing Olympics.

She said: "To be fair, it [jet lag] hasn't been rough, obviously in 2015 we did Japan before we did the Beijing World Championships. That one, and I can be frank about it now, [I] really messed up the jet lag - we were off for about 10 days six years ago!"

Anime to get you in the spirit?

It's fair to say the clamour for these Games from the people living Japan has not exactly been high, in large due to the fear of the spread of coronavirus.

But many are attempting to drum up the Olympic spirit - including a group of artists who have drawn up a series of samurai characters inspired by the flags of competing countries for the World Flags projects, with nations such as South Africa, India and Great Britain represented.

Speaking to BBC News, creator Kamaya Yamamoto said: "Samurais are unique to Japan and we want everyone to get to know traditional Japanese culture."

Djokovic and Murray back on the court together

It has been four years since Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic shared a court for a competitive game of tennis, largely due to the former's well-documented injury issues.

Murray is the two-time defending men's singles Olympic champion, while Djokovic is gunning for top spot on podium as part of his bid to complete a Golden Slam in 2021.

On Friday, fans of these two megastars would have had their hearts warmed to see the pair sharing the practice courts ahead of the start of the tennis tournament on Saturday.

Following their knock, Djokovic took to social media to thank Murray for a "great practice". Isn't that just lovely?