Tokyo Paralympics to open as Japan battles virus surge

Tokyo's Paralympic Games open on Tuesday, with athletes hoping to shatter stereotypes and world records despite a year-long pandemic delay and as Japan battles a surge in virus cases.

The Games will officially be declared open on Tuesday evening by Japan's Emperor Naruhito but virus rules mean most of the stadium's 68,000 seats will be empty. Still, the excitement is clear among the 4,400 athletes from 162 teams taking part this year.

Among them are Germany's world record-setting long-jumper Markus Rehm, dubbed the 'Blade Jumper', and Japan's wheelchair tennis legend Shingo Kunieda. China is expected to continue its gold medal dominance and top the table as it has done at every Paralympics since Athens 2004, but host Japan will be hoping its record 254-strong team can repeat the country's Olympic gold rush.

Hanging over the sport however will be the everpresent shadow of the pandemic, which forced a yearlong delay and at times appeared to threaten the event with cancellation. After months of negative polls, Japanese public opinion on the Olympics shifted once the Games got under way. But the virus situation in Japan has worsened dramatically in the weeks since the Olympic opening ceremony, with the country recording more than 25,000 daily infections in the past week.

Japan's outbreak remains comparatively small, with around 15,500 deaths so far, but just 40 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, insufficient to contain the fast-spreading Delta variant. The opening ceremony will come with Tokyo and 12 other regions under a virus state of emergency that largely limits the opening hours of bars and restaurants and bans them from selling alcohol.