Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lights Olympic flame

Former long-distance runner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lit the Olympic flame on Friday as the Rio 2016 Games were officially declared open.

Football great Pele was expected to be given the honor before ruling himself out earlier on Friday because of ill health.

Cordeiro de Lima, 46, was a marathon bronze medallist at the 2004 Athens Games.

The lighting the of the flame was the culmination of a stirring ceremony at the Maracana stadium that lasted almost four hours.

The ceremony cost an estimated 21 million US dollars, about half the budget for the London 2012 Games.

It included the participation of 5,000 volunteers, 300 artistic producers and more than 200 dancers.

According to the International Olympic Committee, the extravaganza was watched by up to 5 billion people around the world. Endit