
There was further disaster for the Rio Olympics today when the much anticipated track and fields events began to a near empty stadium.

The 46,931-seater stadium was a swathe of empty blue seats and booths stocked with tickets were largely quiet.

Rio 2016 has been plagued by a lack of interest from the Brazilian public and security fears have prevented an influx of American fans and other foreigners.

Anti-government protests which have focused on the Olympics and the dire Brazilian economic situation have also hampered interest in the games.

Anyone here to cheer: The women's 10,000m final got a less than rousing response - even though the winner shattered the world record

Poor support: Empty seats dominated the area behind the starting line as the 110m hurdles, the first round of the heptathlon, happened

Where are they: With the next event due to be the men's 800, the stands were largely empty at the Olympic Stadium

Sparse crowds: Heptathletes, including the defending gold medalist Jessica Ennis-Hill (third from right) line up with a distinct lack of support

Jog on: The 10,000m women's finals were hardly being watched at the stadium on Friday

'We have a problem': The Games' chief spokesman admitted to concern at the lack of interest in watching events

No need to push through the crowds: Empty seats dominated the higher levels at the Olympic Stadium for track and field events

Feel free to spread out: There was no shortage of space for spectators at the track and field's first events in the stadium

Officials have been pinning their hopes on the prospect of seeing stars like world record and Olympic champion Usain Bolt of Jamaica and Britain's heptathlon gold medal winner Jessica Ennis-Hill.

Ennis Hill, who secured her gold at London 2012, was among the first track athletes to compete at Rio 2016 today and could have been forgiven for being mystified by the low turnout.

She was lining up in the 110m hurdles of the heptathlon and when Hungry's Gyorgi Zsivocsky-Farkas crossed the line first, their was a polite ripple of applause from the sparse crowd.

The race also featured Brazil's Vanessa Chefer who would have been expecting more support from her home Olympics.

And there was even a world record for the crowd. Almaz Ayana, of Ethiopia, smashed the world 10,000m record with a time of 29.17.45 before the sparse crowd.

Silver went to Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruyot of Kenya and bronze to Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia.

Traditionally feted events like women's beach volleyball and the appearances by the US basketball team, made up of superstars from the NBA, have failed to fill stadiums.

Such has been the desperation and embarrassment heaped on Olympic officials, they had to bring in Bolt to make a TV appeal to Brazilians to attend.

He said in a video on behalf of the Olympics: 'Hey, I'm here in Rio so make sure you buy your tickets and come and get involved. It's going to be great.'

But even the 100m final on Sunday evening, which is widely seen as a marquee event like the World Cup soccer final or the Wimbledon Mens' tennis final, has failed to sell out and tickets were available online from official suppliers.

Tickets to attend the Olympics start from around $6 dollars( 20 Brazilian Rs) and organizers boast that more than half of the events can been seen for around $20 dollars (70rs).

Are you sure? Chief spokesman Mario Andrada said: 'We don't think it's a growing trend…it's a problem and we have to fix it.'

View from here: The extent of the empty seats in the stadium were clear from the side of the track

Gold medallist Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana celebrates next to a board displaying her new world record after the Women's 10,000m- with huge sections of empty seats behind her. She ran in 29mins17secs and broke a 23-year-old record

Another empty venue: This was the scene at the beach volleyball on Thursday

Not a lot of interest: Seats at the beach volleyball stadium on the Copacabana Beach were expected to sell out but did not

World record and gold: Almaz Ayana (left) won the 10,000m in record time, while her fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba took bronze

Rio 2016's chief spokesman Mario Andrada admitted TV pictures of barely half-full venues were a 'problem' and the organizing committee was trying to fix it.

'Some of the events have massive crowds and massive atmosphere but we have to fix other problems and we're not happy until we have' he said.

'We don't think it's a growing trend…it's a problem and we have to fix it.'

Donovan Ferreti, Rio 2016's ticketing director, said 78 per cent of the 7.5 million tickets available had been sold.

He stressed South Americans were notoriously late buyers - with lots of tickets being bought at the last minute in Argentina, Brazil and Chile - and said many of the sessions were double-headers, with fans choosing to watch only one half.

Andrada said Rio 2016 was also trying to get sponsors and other VIPs to hand over unused tickets so local children from disadvantaged areas could get to see the action, but he admitted this was not easy given the often short notice and the fact children were at school.