It is Day Six of the Olympic Games out in Rio on Thursday and the evening sporting action is once again loaded with things to view as more medals are handed out and other sports get underway across the various venues in the colourful Brazilian city.
Gold Medal Events
- Archery
- Canoe Slalom
- Fencing
- Gymnastics
- Judo
- Rugby Sevens
- Shooting
- Swimming
- Table Tennis
Other Events
The track cycling gets underway on Thursday. We’ve previewed this separately on the site. Team events such as hockey, volleyball, water polo and handball all continue on Thursday while the badminton event gets underway. Sailing, equestrian and boxing are among the solo events that are building towards a conclusion.
Team GB Watch
Britain have a couple of good chances in the canoe slalom events on Thursday evening while their Rugby Sevens side face South Africa in the semi-final of the tournament. With Australia and New Zealand out they have every chance of a medal of some colour. Natalie Powell is in contention in the judo while Team GBs women hockey team have a key match against Japan in the night session.
Gymnastics
After the British bronze in the men’s all around final on Wednesday it is the turn of the female gymnasts which means another chance to see the American poster girl Simone Biles. Barring a crazy unforeseen circumstance she has gold already in her hands.
Ellie Downie goes for Great Britain but she has very little hope of medalling. The home crowds will be excited for the chances of Rebeca Andrade medalling but there isn’t a bet we fancy in this so we’ll focus on the sport elsewhere.
Hockey
Team GB face Japan in a match where a win will confirm their place in the quarter finals and set them up nicely for a table topping showdown with the USA later in the week to see who tops the group and who will in theory get the best draw in the quest for a medal.
Britain are heavy favourites and in terms of a handicap are giving up a 2.5 goals head start. Japan have been beaten by four by Argentina and by five by USA so from that line of thought GB have every chance of covering it but they only beat India by three so it could be tight and given that any win puts them through we’re not confident of taking a handicap.
Swimming
As ever there are four finals on the schedule on Thursday night. The first of them is the Women’s 200m breaststroke which has the potential to be a real cracker. Britain have two women in the final with Molly Renshaw the third fastest qualifier but the final is loaded with talent.
Yulia Efimova, Taylor McKeown and Rie Kaneto will all fancy their chances while the fading world record holder Mollerrikke Pedersen is in the final too and can’t be ruled out.
I’ve looked at all the markets but this could go any way and any of the eight finalists could make it into the top three so working out an angle in isn’t easy which means we’ll leave this one alone.
The semi-finals of the Men’s 200m backstroke yielded some surprises. Mitch Larkin was expected to dominate the event but once again he hasn’t really turned up yet which leaves Evgeny Rylov and Ryan Murphy as the two fastest qualifiers and it could be that they fight it out for the gold medal.
This is another final that looks wide open though so we’re not really keen on too much here. If I was to bet I’d go with the quickest in the semis in Rylov but better opportunities will present themselves elsewhere in these Olympics so we’ll save ourselves for them.
The main event of the night is the Men’s 200m individual medley or Michael Phelps vs Ryan Lochte as it is going to be billed. In truth it is Michael Phelps vs the clock barring something insane from his American rival. Kosuke Hagino could be a threat if it all comes together but I can’t see beyond Phelps for yet another gold in his incredible career.
The last final is the Women’s 100m freestyle where Cate Campbell is an emphatic favourite and surely a gold medallist in waiting even allowing for the strange results we’ve seen in the pool so far.
Sarah Sjostrom has had a busy week so far and she looked to pay the price for that in the semi-final where she came in almost half a second behind Campbell. After that she absolutely pushed herself to the limit to give Sweden a chance of a medal in the 4x200m relay so tiredness is a real factor for here here.
That could play into the hands of the Canadian, Penny Oleksiak and it could well be her that nicks in for silver. The Canadian is the only other woman to go under 53 seconds in this meet so far and that could be a key psychological thing heading into this final. In the without Cate Campbell market Oleksiak is 5/4 to win and that looks good to me.
Tips
WON – Back P.Oleksiak to win Women’s 100m freestyle (w/o the fav) for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Skybet
Back her here:
