One of the busiest days in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics takes place in the Japanese capital on Friday as another load of gold medals are on the line on a day where the leading sports begin to take centre stage across all the venues.
There are a total of 21 gold medals to be won and lost over the course of Friday on a day where a number of the stars of sport come back out and look to write themselves into history with star performances.
Gold Medal Events
- Archery
- Athletics
- Badminton
- Canoe Slalom
- Cycling
- Fencing
- Judo
- Rowing
- Shooting
- Swimming
- Table Tennis
- Tennis
- Trampoline
Other Sports
There is action in a number of the other sports on Friday. The women’s rugby 7s will play down to the semi-final stage while there is further action in both the men’s and women’s hockey competitions. We have the quarter finals of the women’s football tournament and then there is another day of boxing, handball, beach volleyball, water polo, volleyball and baseball action.
Athletics
The athletics gets underway on Friday and there is a gold medal up for grabs at the end of the second session when the Men’s 10,000m final takes place in what is likely to be a clash between the Ugandans and the Ethiopians in what will be pretty extreme conditions even with this final beginning at 20.30 local time.
This is an interesting final actually because the two Ugandans – Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo – have the fastest and seventh fastest times in history but the Ethiopians bring a trio of consistent runners who could make it a testing pace in the conditions. Cheptegei was sixth in this race in 10,000m but obviously the winner of that final, Mo Farah, isn’t here to defend his title. Since that Olympic final, Cheptegei has claimed silver at the 2017 World Championship, gold at the 2019 edition and then last year he demolished the world record taking six seconds off the time. He has spent his time at the lower distances this year so technically we don’t know his 10,000m form but clearly he a leading light in the world and in a slower race his experience could get the better of his 20-year-old teammate. The Ethiopians might need to commit early to get Cheptegei under pressure but I’m not sure that will work. For me, this race is all about Cheptegei and if he is anywhere close to the form you’d expect at an Olympic Games he looks a huge price here.
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Swimming
There are another bunch of swimming finals taking place in the early session on Friday and the pick of the races promises to be the Men’s 200m Individual Medley where there is serious British interest in Duncan Scott, the winner of his semi-final and the second fastest qualifier. He’s in a right good race here though with the world champion and home man Daiya Seto, Chinese swimming Shun Wang and the American star Michael Andrew.
It was a bit of a surprise that when you look at the times from the semi-finals that Andrew only qualified fourth fastest. That is because the only two Americans faster than him in this discipline are the great Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. He is a leading American hope for gold. When you actually watch the semi-finals though he eased up big time down the last length. The numbers that make me think that Andrew will justify favouritism here are the halfway split ones. After the butterfly and backstroke legs, Andrew stopped the clock at 53.65s while Scott was 54.92 and Wang was 54.14 – that is a huge advantage for the American and while his two rivals will fly home down the final 50, Andrew won’t be easing up this time. He was a mile clear of Wang in their semi after three lengths before stopping racing 25m from home. If the three are in a similar place coming into the final turn in this final I don’t see Andrew being caught and you wonder if the other two are any closer whether they’ve gone out too quick and don’t have the kick left at the end. Either way, I think Andrew justifies the hype here.
Women’s Football
It is the quarter finals of the Women’s Football competition on Friday afternoon with the heavyweight showdown between the Netherlands and USA in a repeat of the World Cup final of two years ago very much the pick of the four contests. Eyes over here will be on Team GB who will go up against Australia but it is one of the other two matches which catches my eye from a betting point of view. That is the one between Sweden and the hosts Japan.
Sweden have been excellent in this tournament so far. They began with that eye catching win over the USA and then followed that up with solid victories over a dangerous Australia side and then saw off New Zealand to secure top spot in the group. Japan haven’t had as much fortune though. They needed a late goal to draw with Canada in their opener, lost their second match against Great Britain when their keeper had an absolute mare and edged out a pretty poor Chile side to make it through to this quarter final. Japan were leading lights back in London in 2012 but since then Sweden have been on the rise. They were third in the last World Cup and have looked so much better than the hosts here. I expect them to win this quarter final and do it with a bit in hand.
Tips
Back J.Cheptegei to win Men’s 10,000m for a 2/10 stake at 4.75 with Coral
Back him here:
Back M.Andrew to win Men’s 200m Individual Medley for a 2/10 stake at 2.20 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back Sweden Women (-1AH) to beat Japan Women for a 3/10 stake at 2.08 with Bet365
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