Alina from Russia is photographed for the hundredth time.

Inside the stadium, plucky Venezuela were given a stern going-over by Poland. Venezuela won the South American Olympic qualifying Tournament, but The Europeans were bigger, stronger, and more experienced.

The libero is a relatively recent arrival in world volleyball, introduced for the Sydney Games in 2000. The player wears a different colored uniform from the rest of the team and can be substituted in backcourt for any player on the team. The libero cannot serve, spike the ball over the net or rotate into the front-line positions, but plays a vital role for the team in service reception and backcourt defence, lengthening the rallies and giving a vital role to shorter players.

Venezuela's libero Maria Valero was the smallest player on court, and is perhaps the smallest in the whole competition. She fought like a tiger and pulled off some great recoveries, but Venezuela had no answer to Poland's power servers – Gajgal, Bednarek, and in particular Baranska – and they had no real power servers of their own.

Poland took the first two sets 25-12, with the result that Venezuela earned the biggest cheer of the match to date when they scored their 13th point in the third set. They went on to lose by 20-25, giving Poland a deserved clean sets victory.

Agatha, from Katowitz in Poland, is another tourist who has come for the whole of The Games. She was delighted with her team's victory, but a little disappointed that Venezuela had not been able to make more of a match of it.

Expectations were higher for the second match of the session, pitching 2007 World Cup Champions Italy against Olympic Qualifying Winners Serbia.

Stefania had arrived in Beijing from Foggia in Italy only this morning. She was full of excitement about her country's prospects: "Italy to win 3-1", she told me. "And we'll go on and take the gold!"