The Olympic Games continues throughout the day on Wednesday with a series of events all either concluding or build towards their conclusion and just like with the opening four days of action there is plenty for us to bet on over the course of the day.
Gold Medal Events
- Canoeing
- Diving
- Fencing
- Gymnastics
- Judo
- Shooting
- Swimming
- Weightlifting
Other Events
Although the rowing was cancelled early on down on the lake on Wednesday there are plenty of other events still going. Hockey, Rugby Sevens, Volleyball and Handball have been getting a lot of televised attention in the Games and they are all continuing on Wednesday along with sports like table tennis and water polo. For equestrian fans the Dressage competition begins on Wednesday.
Team GB Watch
Britain have a few medal chances on Wednesday. Max Whitlock will be hoping to do some damage in the men’s all-around gymnastics final while on the canoe course Joe Clarke will be hoping to medal having qualified in second place. In the pool Andrew Willis qualified well in the 200m breaststroke while world bronze medallists Jack Laugher and Chris Mears go in the 3m synchro diving.
Gymnastics
It looked like the final of the men’s all-around is between the defending champion Kohei Uchimura and Oleg Verniaiev. Those two were well clear in qualifying but behind them there could be a real bun fight for the bronze medal.
Russian gymnast David Belyavskiy qualified in third place for the final but I don’t think this is a qualifying event we can take much notice of given that it came so early on in the week. I suspect the final might be much different and world silver medallist Max Whitlock certainly isn’t without a chance.
Louis Smith seems to get the attention when it comes to the media in this sport but Whitlock has certainly matched his level if not bettered it now. We saw Whitlock going really well for GB in the team final and Britain may have medalled and Smith not messed up his pommel horse routine. That should only have fuelled the fire of the Brit and at 9/4 it is worth taking the chance Whitlock lands bronze.
Hockey
Both Team GB sides are in action on Wednesday and both are heavy outsiders to win their matches. The women, who have started so well, face their toughest test when they take on Argentina while the men could put the final nail into Australia’s coffin.
With New Zealand still to play Brazil and Belgium and Australia facing Brazil in their last match this match is must not lose for the British with just one game left after this. They should take confidence though from the fact that Australia have lost to Spain and Belgium already in the group, indeed Britain’s defeat to Belgium doesn’t look so bad now.
Team GB should have built up some real confidence from their win over Brazil on Tuesday night and at 5/2 they are value to see off a disappointing Aussie team who haven’t even found the net in their previous two matches.
Diving
Once again the Chinese are expected to dominate the final of the men’s 3m springboard synchro event and the medals look to be fairly set in stoke with Russia and Team GB expected to follow them in. The odds reflect that leaving the only thing of interest in this final likely to be the colour of the pool after it mysteriously turned green on Tuesday!
Swimming
Once again there are four gold medals up for grabs in the pool with the final of the men’s 200m breaststroke, women’s 200m butterfly, men’s 100m freestyle and women’s 4x200m freestyle relay all on show in another busy session.
Two of the finals interest me starting right out of the gate when Andrew Willis goes for gold in the men’s 200m breaststroke. He qualified in second place behind the surprise Japanese swimmer Ippei Watanabe but I didn’t think Willis was anywhere near his limit, indeed there looked to be a lot more to come from the Brit.
This will be a competitive final. Only a second separated all eight men in the semi-finals and you would expect there to be plenty of improvement in the pre-event favourite Josh Prenot of USA. Willis isn’t without a chance based on the semi-finals and I wouldn’t put anyone off him winning but the safer option could be the 7/4 about him winning a medal just in case he is swum out of it late on.
The women’s 200m butterfly should be a cracking watch. Australia’s world number one Madeleine Groves set a marker down in the semi-final when she blasted off the blocks and lasted home and it will be interesting to see her tactics in this final.
Groves made a bit of a pigs ear of things in the heats but that might actually have been the way to go because the winner of the other semi-final only just scraped through the heats but then blasted her semi apart. In contrast Mireia Belmonte won her heat but laboured in the semi-final so this will be an interesting final.
Groves went into the meet as the best in the world and I’m more prepared to take notice of the semi-final than the heat and based on that I fancy the Australian could take gold. She was almost half a second clear of the field in the semis and that is a big gap to bridge. She’s the one to beat for me.
The other two finals will be good to watch as all freestyle finals are but there is such a fine margin between all eight men in the 100m freestyle that betting on that would be crazy while we’ve not had the heats of the women’s 4x200m relay, not that we need it with the Americans only having to avoid disqualification to win.
Tips
WON – Back M.Whitlock Top 3 Finish (gymnastics) for a 3/10 stake at 3.25 with Skybet
Back him here:
Back Great Britain to beat Australia (hockey) for a 3/10 stake at 3.50 with 188bet
Back them here:
Back A.Willis to medal in Men’s 200m breaststroke for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
Back M.Groves to win Women’s 200m butterfly for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Bet365
Back her here:
