2012 Olympics - Swimming (Day 7)

Women’s 200m Backstroke final: Another female final, another young budding superstar in the shape of Missy Frankilin, who has wowed so many at these games with her talent, enthuaisams and impressive haul of impressive medal haul of bronze (4x100m relay), gold (100m backstroke) and gold (4x200m relay), leading many to christen her to be the female Michael Phelps of the games. She went nearly a second quicker than Meagen Nay and Kirsty Coventry without pushing herself hard, getting the second best time behind likely Silver medallist Elisabeth Biesel, who swam so cleanly in her heat and won easily in the end.  

They should be the 1-2, and the battle for third is very a tricky betting heat which concerns Megan Nay, Kirsty Coventry and Anastasia Zuyeva. Coventry is actually going for the threepeat which had eluded the likes of Kosuke Kitajima and Michael Phelps until recently, but in her semi she clocked only the sixth fastest time. Zueyva makes most appeal for bronze.

Advice: 2 pts Anastaia Zeuyva for Bronze (2/1 Hills)

Men’s 100m Butterfly Final: After Michael Phelps beat Ryan Lochte in last night's 200 IM, all looks rosy for the most medalled and one of the greatest Olympians of all time, and he’s long odds on to take the 100m Butterfly, being as short as 1/8 in places. Him being favourite is fair enough but I find it hard to believe he should be that short considering how Le Clos beat him in the 200 and how he caught experienced Serbian Milorad Cavic, where the gap was so close (0.001 of a second) that the official time keeper Omega said that Čavić was the first to touch the touchpad, but that "Phelps did it more forcefully", after a long investigation (the Serbs appealed). Throw Tlyer McGill into the mix, and even the great Phelps has something on his hands tonight.

Le Clos cruised through his semi-final as the second fastest swimmer and beat Phelps by a touch in that sensational last 10m of the final, so it’s not surprise to see him at 13/2 second favourite – it’s 20’s bar – although this isn’t his specialist stroke, which raises a slight doubt. US specialist Tyler McGill was a close third in the semi which contained the three and is a tempting 5/4 for a medal of any kind – Le Clos is 4/11 for some reason despite beating Cavic by just a touch and he might be the best way to find value in the final, which is going to be an event to savour.

Advice: 1 pt Tyler McGill w/o Phelps (9/2 Betfair)

Go Becky Go!

Women’s 800m freestyle final: Grab your flags, get your mum on the speakerphone, and start learning the words to God Save The Queen, because this is Rebecca Adlington’s main moment to shine. So often the damsel of British Swimming, she stole our hearts when doing a fantastic double in the 400/800m distances of this discipline, and while she’s had her downs since, she’s been dominant for the past year and nobody can touch her at this distance barring rival Lotte Friis, who had the whip hand in their battles between 2009-10 but has since been pegged back by Adlington, who changed her training schedules between 2/4/800 in a post Bejing slump and refused to wear the now banned non-textile suits.  For those who don’t know the score between her and Friis, they’ve been racing (and friends according to Rebecca) since an early age and have duelled for years. Adlington had the upperhand before and during Bejjing, slumped badly afterwards, and is now the better of the pair according to her sensational win in Shanghai – where they duelled for 16 laps full on before a startling late comeback.

After being well outpaced at the halfway mark by Muffat and Schmitt in the 400m final, she found another gear to take bronze late on, giving the strong impression that it was all about this for her, and another gold should be hers by the end of the night. The odds on about her winning Is understandable given her performances so far, but with her great rival – who showed that she is in great shape by breaking her own personal best in coming fourth in the 400m final on Sunday night - sure to push her all the way, Skybet’s 2/1 that Adlington gets there by less than a second seems like a top shout. Of the others, America’s 15 year old Katie Ledecky makes the most appeal for Bronze, but the top two are the ones to concentrate on from this point of view.

Advice: 1 pt Adlington to win by less than a second (2/1 Skybet)