2012 Olympics - Swimming (Final Day)

Men’s 1500m Freestyle Final: Another final, another seemingly untouchable favourite in Sun Yang of China, who won gold in the 400m equivalent but comes into his own when tackling this marathon distance, as he showed when smashing the world record to win this event at the World Championships last year. He was three seconds quicker than anyone at the recent heats and is unopposable as he looks to add to China’s burgeoning medals tally in the pool. Defending champion Oussama Mellouli was second, albeit well beaten in the heats, but has a rich history in this event, having edged out Hackett at the 2008 Beijing Games, and his time of 14:46.23 made him the second fastest in the world in 2012 behind Sun. He trades at 9/4 for the second spot (Yang is home and hosed) just ahead of the bronze medallist from 4 years ago, Ryan Cochrane. Cochrane is an extremely talented swimmer who went runner up to Yang at the worlds and should medal but Melloui makes most appeal.

Advice: 2 pts Oussama Melloui w/o Sun Yang (9/4 Betfair) 

Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay Final: How on earth do you stop the USA? Missy Franklin, the 100 back gold-medalist; and Dana Vollmer, the 100 fly gold-medalist. They are expected to be joined by Rebecca Soni, the 100 breast silver medalist who also won gold in the 200 breast; and Allison Schmitt, who is tied with Franklin with four overall medals. They can’t be touched, and neither can Australia – the only nation who can really go with them and the last two winners of the event - easily won their heat in a time of three minutes, 55.42 seconds ahead of Japan, Denmark, the United States, the Netherlands, Britain, China and Russia. China are rated 1-2 for a medal but that’s far too short and the best squad for that might well be the Netherlands, who can call on their lighting double world champion for a leg or two. It’s best avoided though.

Men’s 4x100m Relay final: Another relay final, same question. How do you stop the USA? Of the 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter breaststroke, 100-meter butterfly and 100-meter breaststroke, the U.S. men have three of the four gold-medalists: Matt Grevers swimming the backstroke, Phelps in the butterfly and Nathan Adrian on freestyle. Only two other nations—South Africa and Australia—have two medalists in the corresponding events, and with SA not making the final, there’s no value in here.