LONDON - Ryan Lochte was among the few who wasn't concerned about getting wet when heavy rain saturated the London Olympics on Sunday.

After a week of sunshine, heavy rain on the second day of competition affected the start of tennis on the lawn courts at Wimbledon, made for slippery conditions in the women's cycling road race and gave horses problems in the dressage event.

Tickets were offered to local school children and soldiers who stepped in to guard the games after it emerged that blocks of prime seats were being left empty at Olympic venues that are reportedly sold out.

Organizing chief Sebastian Coe, responding to the criticism, said the troops and students would fill the gaps.

In the 140-kilometre race held in mostly pelting rain, host Britain picked up its first medal of the games — Lizzie Armitstead took silver behind first-place Marianne Vos of the Netherlands.

Vos, a former world champion, made a daring move past Russia's Olga Zabelinskaya over the rain-soaked roads to emerge from a three-rider breakaway on the straight near Buckingham Palace.

The joy of Britain's first medal was tempered by news from the country's athletics federation that its top marathoner, Paula Radcliffe, has pulled out of the Aug. 5 race due to a foot injury.

The inclement weather didn't bother the swimmers at the indoor Aquatics Centre. Lochte had the second-fastest time in qualifying for the 200-meter freestyle, the morning after his stunning win in a 400-meter individual medley final that will be famous for the fact Michael Phelps missed a medal.

"I didn't get to bed until like 2 a.m. so I'm a little tired, but it was a prelims swim, so I'm not too worried about it," said Lochte, who went out with family and friends to celebrate his victory. Phelps won an unprecedented eight golds at the Beijing Olympics, but now can't win any more than six in London.

While the weather was bad, there were other problems: a female gymnast from Uzbekistan was provisionally suspended after failing a doping test, the second case of the games. The IOC says Luiza Galiulina tested positive for the diuretic furosemide on Wednesday. It came a day after the IOC expelled Albanian weightlifter Hysen Pulaku from the games after he tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol on July 23.

And hundreds of fans wanting to see New Zealand, Brazil, Belarus and Egypt were stranded in London or forced to sit on the train floor Sunday as service operators supplied only two morning London-to-Manchester services in time for the noon kickoff of the New Zealand-Egypt match in Manchester, 200 miles (320 kilometres) northwest of London.

At Wimbledon in southwest London, the new retractable roof came in handy. Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova were scheduled to play.

In the first of 14 gold medals to be presented Sunday, shooter Guo Wenjun defended her women's 10-meter air pistol title, giving China its second gold at the range.

Kimberly Rhode won the gold medal in women's skeet, making her the first American to win an individual-sport medal in five consecutive Olympics.

Rhode won a gold medal in double trap at Atlanta as a teenager in 1996, took bronze in that event four years later at Sydney, re-claimed the gold at Athens in 2004 and won the silver in skeet at Beijing in 2008. She set an Olympic record in qualifying, missing only one of her 75 shots.

Elsewhere, the 3-meter synchronized springboard was won by Chinese divers He Zi and Wu Minxia — no surprise there. At the Beijing Games four years ago, only Australian Matt Mitcham's win in the platform prevented the host country from sweeping all 10 events.

At the Olympic equestrian complex, Zara Phillips, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, had a few royal fans in the stands as she made her equestrian debut.

Phillips' grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as her mother, Princess Anne, were in the VIP seats at Greenwich Park as Phillips rode her horse, High Kingdom, through the paces of a standard dressage test to demonstrate the horse's obedience.

She scored 48.10 penalty points despite a mistake toward the beginning of her canter in the first "flying change." In the stride, the horse is supposed to change the sequence of his steps from side to side, but High Kingdom didn't respond immediately to Phillips' cues.

In opening men's basketball, Leandro Barbosa scored 16 points and Brazil held on to beat Australia 75-71. Patty Mills, re-signed by the San Antonio Spurs earlier this month, finished with a game-high 20 points for Australia. The U.S. team was opening its campaign against France later Sunday.

Those who enjoyed the music-packed Olympics opening ceremony can buy the album — and thousands have.

The soundtrack album, which went on sale as a download minutes after Friday's ceremony ended, has topped the iTunes album chart in Britain, France, Belgium and Spain, and has reached No. 5 in the United States.

Director Danny Boyle's spectacular was a rollicking celebration of British music, and the album includes tracks from — among others — David Bowie, The Pet Shop Boys, Chemical Brothers, Dizzee Rascal, Emeli Sande, Arctic Monkeys and Underworld.