As ever the Olympic Games continue with many sports taking place in the early evening into the late hours on Friday and as with the rest of the week that brings about plenty of betting potential and interest.
Gold Medal Events
- Archery
- Equestrian
- Fencing
- Judo
- Shooting
- Swimming
- Gymnastics
- Table Tennis
- Weightlifting
Other Events
Plenty more sports continue on Friday which don’t all have medal prospects on Friday. We’ve previewed the athletics, tennis and track cycling elsewhere and we have the hockey, volleyball, water polo and handball all continuing as well as the badminton, boxing and the diving.
Team GB Watch
In terms of medal prospects on Friday we are looking towards the shooting for a genuine chance of a medal going into the evening. Youngster Amber Hill is a regular contender at world level and she’ll go for gold. Jazz Carlin should be assured of a medal in the swimming pool and there is an outside chance of a medal in the fencing too. A medal chance is also alive in the equestrian where Charlotte Dujardin will try and defend her Olympic title.
Gymnastics
It is the turn of the trampolinists to take centre stage on Friday as the women have their event. Bryony Page and Katherine Driscoll will compete for Team GB but it is Li Dan who is a 6/4 favourite to win the event. With qualifying and the final on the same night we don’t really get a chance to get a feel for the competition so we’ll leave that alone and cheer on the GB duo.
Diving
The preliminary round for the women’s 3m springboard takes place on Friday but we prefer to wait to see how everyone is performing before we get stuck in so we might come back to this later in the Games ahead of the final if there is a betting proposition.
Hockey
It is the final night of group matches in the men’s competition and both Great Britain and Ireland are involved in crucial matches. Ireland’s match with Argentina is a straight knockout with the winner finishing fourth and going through and the loser going out.
Argentina are odds on favourites and while they have made a real mess of this qualifying campaign they should be good enough to see off a spirited Irish side but one which ultimately shouldn’t cause them too many problems at this level in a match of this magnitude.
Great Britain have a stiffer task against a decent looking Spain side. They have to better New Zealand’s result or win by three more goals to go through and while there is a chance that the Kiwis could slip up it is imperative that Britain don’t.
I didn’t think Britain were too bad against Australia although they did lack for numbers in attack and that is something they can’t afford here. A draw might be enough to get GB through but with New Zealand kicking off an hour after GB do the British side can’t rely on that.
Spain caught Australia cold earlier in the tournament but they came into the competition ranked 11th in the world and unlike GB they weren’t at the Champions Trophy in London earlier in the year which shows there should be a gulf between GB and Spain.
It might be a nervy occasion given the magnitude of the match for Britain but they are used to big matches and I expect them to perform here and get the win they desire.
Swimming
It is the penultimate night of finals in the swimming pool and all eyes will be on Michael Phelps once again as he goes for gold in the Men’s 100m butterfly final. Katie Ledecky is also in action in the Women’s 800m freestyle where other than drowning she is a certainty for gold. The other two finals are the Women’s 200m backstroke where Katinka Hosszu is a massive favourite. The other final is the Men’s 50m freestyle where the fastest man in the pool will be crowned.
All four finals have massive favourites but there could be the chance to take one of them on especially those with heavy schedules this week and it could be that the legend Michael Phelps is the one to take on.
His final is stacked with potential winners and Phelps looked quite jaded in his semi-final which he came second to Laszlo Cseh in. In the other semi Joseph Schooling was a surprising fastest qualifier and then there is Chad le Clos who might have a point to prove after failing in the 200m.
Schooling will do well to get the sort of lead he managed in the semi-final in this final while le Clos doesn’t look at his best this week so I’m going to take a chance on the Hungarian swimmer Cseh. He’s a massive price but if Phelps is beaten then there isn’t much between the rest so it could be worth taking the chance that he gets the touch like he did against Phelps in the semi-final.
I wouldn’t be backing Florent Manaudou in the Men’s 50m freestyle at 4/9 because anything can happen in a sprint but he did qualify comfortably the fastest whereas there is no opposing Ledecky and Hosszu in the other finals so it is just Cseh for this session for me.
Tips
Back Team GB to beat Spain (Hockey) for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Winner Sports
Back them here:
Back L.Cseh to win Men’s 100m Butterfly for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Coral
Back him here:
