Local athletes in action at the Commonwealth Games today

Rotorua's Amanda Landers-Murphy starts her Commonwealth Games campaign tonight. Photo / Stephen Parker

The Commonwealth Games are under way and day one sees a handful of Rotorua and Taupo athletes in action.

Rotorua's Amanda Landers-Murphy begins her singles squash campaign, in the round of 64, against Sri Lanka's Mihiliya Methsarani at 9.20pm.

She is one of two women in the New Zealand team, alongside three-time Commonwealth Games medal winner and women's world number nine Joelle King from Cambridge.

Landers-Murphy is ranked 38th in the world and will play in the women's singles, women's doubles with King and mixed doubles with Zac Millar.

Taupo's Nicole van der Kaay will be among the first to compete for a medal as the women's triathlon starts at 11.30am today.

Van der Kaay goes into the race in fine form, having achieved her first World Cup podium at the Quality Hotel Plymouth International Triathlon World Cup last month. She finished ahead of fellow Kiwi Andrea Hewitt, who is ranked fifth in the world, at that event. Hewitt finished fourth at the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The Silver Ferns also get their campaign under way tonight, playing Uganda at 8.32pm in their first group game. Rotorua's Sam Sinclair has cemented her place as a key member of the squad and will play an important role in turning around the side's form after conceding the Taini Jamison Trophy with dual losses to Jamaica.

Add January's defeats to England and Australia in the Quad Series, and the Silver Ferns are a side under pressure to perform.