The ITF World Championships returned after a four-year absence due to a COVID-19-enforced delay to the staging of the event in the Finnish city of Tampere.

After topping the medals table at the last edition in the German city of Inzell, Argentina got off to a strong start with victory for Silvio Gamboa and Rodrigo Gastón Gozzano in the mixed team pre-arranged sparring.

They edged past Scotland's Jemma Swinburne and Jack Lobban in the final to win the first gold of the Championships.

Hosts Finland also medalled in the same event through Mira Sjövall and Ariella Figueroa, who took bronze along with Spain's Cristobal Segura and Joan Fuentes Moya.

It was a particularly successful day for Romania, with Mircea Hondru winning men's individual and team special technique gold.

He produced five fully moved boards in the individual competition to score 15 points, beating the 13 from compatriot Andrei Ionut Chiriac and 12 from New Zealand's Bailey Jeffery.

Hondru and Chiriac formed part of the successful team which won the special technique event in a tiebreak match with Poland and Norway, after the trio had all scored 12.

Romania topped the scoring in the tiebreak with 1,000 points, followed by Norway with 201 and Poland with 200.

Hungary's Balázs Ervin was another winner on day one, triumphing in the men's individual power test on a tiebreak, after silver medallist Dino Mujanovic of Sweden and Apáti Bálint of Hungary had also scored 48.

The women's individual power test also went to a tiebreak, which was won by Kyla Walton of New Zealand after she, Argentina's Mailen Palavecino and Romania's Ana Cornelia Heveși had all scored 33.

The first day also featured competition in the Junior World Championships for athletes aged 15 to 17 in which Argentina claimed five of the available 16 gold medals and the first Pre-Junior World Championships for participants aged 12 to 14 in which Argentina, England, the United States and Israel each earned one gold apiece.

Tomorrow is set to mark the second of four days at the ITF World Championships.

More than 1,100 athletes are competing across the three age brackets.