There is plenty more action taking place in Rio on Day 4 of the Olympic Games on Tuesday with medals up for grabs in no fewer than nine sports while the various team competitions continue at a rate of knots.
Gold Medal Events
- Canoeing
- Diving
- Equestrian
- Fencing
- Gymnastics
- Judo
- Shooting
- Swimming
- Weightlifting
Other Events
The regular team events such as hockey, volleyball, beach volleyball, handball, water polo continue throughout Tuesday and it is also the first day of the men’s Rugby Sevens which is making its debut in the Olympics. Heats and qualifying in things like rowing and archery are also going on throughout Rio.
Team GB Watch
David Florence will be going for Gold in the canoeing in the early evening. The world champion will be looking to upgrade his silver medal from four years ago. Team GB gymnasts will be aiming to land a medal in the women’s team competition while GB men hockey will be looking for a convincing performance and a win when they face Brazil in a key match.
Volleyball
There is an interesting match in the men’s volleyball on Tuesday afternoon when Italy, fourth placed in the recent World League, take on the USA who won the World Cup last year. Italy go into the match as the favourites but this is a huge game for the world champions.
USA slipped up in their opening match against Canada on Sunday although the three sets they lost were all pretty close while at the same time Italy beat France to gain revenge for losing the bronze medal match to the same opposition in that World League tournament.
These two sides met as recently as three weeks ago in the World League in a match Italy won 3-1 but all the sets were tight as you would expect. The game after that USA led Brazil 2-0 in sets before losing 3-2 so the States just can’t get over the line in sets but given this is a match they need to win to ease the pressure on their qualifying hopes there could just be some reward in taking the 11/10 on the World Cup winners.
Hockey
The men’s competition continues on Tuesday but it does so with a host of one sided matches according to the bookmakers, and they are likely to be right. All the pressure is on Team GB after they failed to win either of their first two matches although they did look ok against New Zealand in their previous match.
They face the whipping boys Brazil on Tuesday evening but are 1/100 to win the match which shows just how expected to win they are. Normally I might consider a handicap but given this one is all about just winning to get their campaign back on track I’ll tentatively leave well alone.
Gymnastics
The women’s team competition final will be played out on Tuesday with GBs women looking to go one better than the men went on Monday. Barring an unforeseen calamity the USA look nailed on for the gold and with the likes of China and Russia around a medal isn’t going to be too easy for our girls. The odds look about right in this final and nothing gives much interest.
Diving
After Tom Daley and Dan Goodfellow won bronze in the men’s 10m synchro on Monday evening the British female pair of Tonia Couch and Lois Toulson will be looking to emulate them but China are overwhelming favourites to win the gold. Canada and North Korea look in position to take the minor medals and this is another market which doesn’t inspire a bet.
Swimming
Going into the early hours all eyes will be on the swimming pool where there are four really appealing finals on show and some of the very best swimmers in the world including Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps.
Ledecky will be up first in the Women’s 200m freestyle final. This isn’t her best event but she is still expected to win the gold although Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom will have plenty to say about it. Sjostrom laid it down to Ledecky in the semi-final and got the touch first but I think Ledecky was holding plenty back and her stamina can see her through. Class often prevails in the Olympic final and the young American has that in spades.
It is a sign of how good the quality of this session is though when that final is merely the starter for the main event which is the Men’s 200m butterfly where we have the next instalment in the Phelps vs le Clos showdown but we were given a good reminder that this isn’t just about those two in the semi-final when Tamas Kenderesi qualified as the fastest.
When you add Laszlo Cseh to the party as well we are set for a heck of a final here. I think there could be a little more to come from Chad le Clos though. He finished a second behind Phelps in the semi-final but didn’t really extend himself and was probably knackered after setting a crazy pace in the Men’s 200m freestyle final about 45 minutes earlier. He’ll be fresher here and he’s the value in a top class race for me.
The third and final singles final on Tuesday night is the Women’s 200m Individual Medley. This is a two horse race between Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and Great Britain’s Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and having qualified the fastest the Brit certainly isn’t without a chance.
Hosszu is meant to be lining up in the Women’s 200m butterfly in the morning and evening session. Indeed the semi-final of that is only 50 minutes before this final so if she competes in that event she is going to be pretty tired whereas this is O’Connor’s main event and she’ll be fresh and focused.
Even if the Hungarian skips the butterfly she’s already done plenty of racing this week. Hosszu is still the favourite but O’Connor’s chances are much better than the odds suggest. She’s worth a small punt.
The last final is the Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay which looks another cracker. United States, Australia and Great Britain are expected to fight it out for the medals but rather than predict the order they’ll finish I’ll sit back and enjoy what should be something special.
Tips
Back USA to beat Italy (Men’s Volleyball) for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Skybet
Back them here:
WON – Back K.Ledecky to win Women’s 200m Freestyle for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Coral
Back her here:
Back C.le Clos to win Men’s 200m Butterfly for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with 888sport
Back him here:
Back S-M.O’Connor to win Women’s 200m Individual Medley for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Betfred
Back her here:
