Competition starts before official opening of Universiade

Competitions began Friday in the Kazan Summer Universiade, a day ahead of the official opening of the games.

The first round of the team badminton started while the second round will be held in the evening. The preliminaries of women's one-metre springboard and men's three-metre springboard diving events also started Friday morning, reports Xinhua.

The women's football tournament will open with a match between defending champions China and Ireland at the Rubin Stadium. The other 13 matches will be played at the Olympic Stadium, the Raketa Stadium and the Trudovye Rezervy Stadium.

The water polo tournament begins with a match between the United States and Brazil Friday and will be followed by matches between Japan and Australia, Serbia and Montenegro, Hungary and Georgia, Italy and Belgium, Russia and Canada.

Preliminaries of boxing and synchronised swimming have also started. But the first gold medal of the Universiade will not come out until July 7, the day after Saturday's opening ceremony.