It is the middle Saturday of the Olympic Games out in Rio and as you would expect there is plenty of sporting action both to enjoy and to bet on with a wide range of events either starting or continuing towards their conclusion.
Gold Medal Events
- Fencing
- Rowing
- Gymnastics
- Shooting
- Weightlifting
Other Events
We’ve covered the tennis, track cycling, football and athletics elsewhere and we also have the usual events continuing on this busy day including hockey, water polo, volleyball and handball while the table tennis and badminton continues to rattle along at a pace as well.
Team GB Watch
This was a very big day for GB in London four years ago and much is promised from their athletes here too. The men’s eight are favourites for the rowing gold while Fran Halsall and the men’s relay team have every chance in the pool as well as a range of potential medallists in the athletics and cycling.
In the team sports Team GB women face USA to decide who wins their group with the winner topping the table and facing potentially the easiest route through to the final. Both have already qualified though.
Rowing
Britain enjoyed a good day on the lake on Friday with a couple of gold medals and I think they can have another decent day on Saturday. They were the fastest qualifiers for the Men’s eight winning their semi-final quite comfortably.
Heading into the regatta the Netherlands were touted as favourites but they’ve been ordinary out in Brazil and having to go through the repechage won’t have done them any favours. Even then they could only come second.
That means the race is likely to be a battle between the 2012 Olympic champions Germany and the 2015 world champions Great Britain and my money is on the latter. This is a boat which has had a lot of time and energy invested into it with the pressure on them to win the gold. Off the back of the success of the team on Friday they will want to deliver and the odds against on them to do so is worthy of support.
Diving
The Women’s 3m springboard competition continues on Saturday with the semi-finals of that event if the water allows it to take place. We didn’t really find out too much in the preliminary round so we’ll take another watching brief and come back to this competition ahead of the final if anything stands out.
Gymnastics
After the success of the GB women on the trampoline on Friday night all eyes will be on Nathan Bailey to see if he can deliver the goods on Saturday night when the men take to the trampoline.
The odds suggest the medallists will come from Asia which is probably a pretty safe bet but we saw enough in the women’s event to know the potential for surprises in this competition so we’ll run for the hills here.
Hockey
That match between Team GB and USA is very much the highlight down at the hockey and it could be that GB are being overestimated in the match. USA outperformed GB in the Champions Trophy in London earlier in the year and they have looked the more convincing out in Brazil too.
The two sides met in that tournament and the USA, who weren’t going all that well going into that match, claimed a 2-0 win which set them on their way in that event. Given that they’ve looked the better of the two here and are ranked higher than GB it makes sense that at 19/10 they are a touch overpriced. Britain are through come what may but it could be they are forced to settle for second rather than first.
Swimming
It is the final night of action in the pool and the meet rounds off with the Women’s 50m freestyle final, the Men’s 1500m freestyle final and the two 4×100 individual medley relay finals.
It was a night of carnage for the favourites on Friday in the pool and it could be that even more get beaten on Saturday although surely one favourite which is safe comes in the form of Gregorio Paltrinieri who looks like he only has to stay afloat to win.
The USA should cruise to victory in the Women’s 4×100 medley relay but the other two finals have the potential for surprise. Cate Campbell couldn’t win her heat or her semi-final and despite having been turned over at ludicrously short prices in the 100m she is still the favourite to win gold in this event. I can’t be having that.
Denmark’s Pernille Blume has been the fastest in both the heats and the semis and having got off to great starts on both occasions for me she is the one to beat. We can’t go in with masses of confidence because only a quarter of a second split the field in the semis but for me she should be favourite.
I’m going to have a saver on GBs Fran Halsall too. She won her heat and her semi in impressive fashion and although she has a bit to find time wise from the semi I believe she could do that because her preparations for that race were thrown into farce when the bus driver taking the athletes to the venue decided to go to the wrong place!
That won’t happen here so if everything is settled in the build up to the final Halsall could surprise this field at a decent price for a saver to the Danish flyer.
It will be the final time we see Michael Phelps in an Olympic pool on Saturday night and his USA teammates are sure to be up for trying to win him a gold to finish with but Great Britain have the perfect role as party spoilers and they could just do it.
Adam Peaty had over a second in hand in the final of the 100m breaststroke when he won the gold and if he can race a leg like that again in this final Britain are going to have a lovely platform to take into the last leg where Duncan Scott has been swimming really nicely in the freestyle.
James Guy and Chris Walker-Hebborn are competitive in their disciplines and if they can keep in touch with the Americans in the first two legs it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise if Peaty sends Scott into the pool in front. Then it would be a mad dash between him and Nathan Adrian for the gold but there wasn’t much between the two in the individual which makes me believe Great Britain could just hold out.
Tips
WON – Back Great Britain to win Men’s Eight (rowing) for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Bet365
Back them here:
Back USA to beat Great Britain (hockey) for a 3/10 stake at 2.90 with Boylesports
Back them here:
WON – Back P.Blume to win Women’s 50m Freestyle for a 2/10 stake at 3.50 with Coral
Back F.Halsall to win Women’s 50m Freestyle for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Coral
Back them here:
Back Great Britain to win Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with William Hill
Back them here:
