Stadium ready? Check. Equipment working, check. Crowd dancing, double check. An international volleyball event testing Rio de Janeiro's readiness to host the 2016 Olympics got off to a flawless start Wednesday.

The World League finals feature the top six volleyball teams this week, with the opening game on Wednesday seeing France beat Brazil in four sets at Rio de Janeiro's famous Maracana stadium complex.

For Brazil's players -- not just on home ground but playing one of their main national sports -- the loss was disappointing.

However for organizers of the Summer Games which open in Rio in August 2016, things went perfectly.

With the Olympics only just over a year away, the volleyball was the first of 44 events running up until May that will test the city's infrastructure and organization in real world conditions.

The action took place in the Maracanazinho arena, adjacent to the legendary Maracana football stadium which will host the Games' opening ceremony.

Giovane Gavio, a gold medal-winning former member of the Brazilian Olympic team and now in charge of next year's volleyball events, told AFP that the day passed off "very positively."

"So far, all is well," he said. "The Maracanazinho has been undergoing refurbishment and it is meeting expectations."

The playing area appeared to work smoothly, the big screens had no glitches, and apart from the volume being turned to ear-splitting levels for the opening second of the French national anthem, the PA system worked perfectly.

Being Brazil, the crowd needed little encouragement.

Thousands of yellow-shirted fans danced and chanted with all the stamina of carnival veterans. And when it came to trying to put off French players with intense whistling, they were just as enthusiastic.

French player Benjamin Toniutti spoke of the "difficult atmosphere" for a visiting side, but the crowd was not enough to help Brazil through.

"That helps us," Franck Lafitte, another French player, said after, referring to the hostile crowd noise. "The atmosphere was great."
Source: AFP