2012 Olympics - Women's 100m

The women’s 100m really kicks off Athletic events at this London games for many and fittingly, it’s one of the most competitive events at the games with several contenders for gold – seven sprinters ran heats in 11 seconds or better yesterday.

The favourite is Shelley -Ann -Fraser- Pryce, who became the first woman to win Olympic gold in the Women’s 100m for Jamaica 4 years ago in Bejing and then backed that up with a superb run to take the world title in Berlin a year later, proving that she was a worthy Olympic champion.

That sees her as favourite and she laid down and omnious marker when running a Jamaican record 10.70 at the Olympic trials in June, which puts her fourth on the 100m all-time list. That kind of time is sure to see her go mightily close to retaining her title and makes her a worthy favourite, for all that she was beaten out of the medals in the World Championship finals and has run some below par races this season, notably when stumbling out of the blocks and finishing last in the Diamond League meeting at Crystal Palace. She’s the one to beat on her best form, it’s whether she brings it to the table.

Carmelita Jeter is the current world champion (where she beat Campbell-Brown, Trinidad's Kelly-Ann Baptiste and Fraser-Pryce), second fastest woman in history, and qualified quickest for the semi-finals in a blistering time of 10.83sec easing down significantly late, which would have been enough to win a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She seems to be operating at the height of her powers right now and is a slight second favourite behind Fraser, but even with the bookies having cottoned on she looks worth supporting.

On heat times, Jeter is 0.10sec ahead of Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare, who has been flagged up by a few shewdies in the run to this event after beating the best of the best at the Diamond League event at Crystal Palace and then running an even faster time in Monaco the next week. The Long Jump medallist from the last Games in Beijing, Okagbare has since progressed into a very smart sprinter and looked extremely good when winning her heat and dipping under 11 seconds in the process. She’s 9/1 with Boylesports and that looks very big as a saver.

Silver medallist at the world championships, Veronica Campbell-Brown is sure to be right there at the finish despite being more comfortable at the distance of 200m, where she is only the second woman to win at two consecutive Olympics, and the fact that she clocked 10.82 and 10.94 at the trials says that she’s nearing top form for a crack at this, and a medal looks to be a certainty.

The USA’s Allison Felix and former World Long Jump title holder Tianna Madison (making her Olympic debut) set personal record times of 10.92 and 10.96 in their build up to the Games and underline the strength in depth of a completion where world championship bronze Kelly Ann Baptiste – who holds the third best time this season – is as big as 20/1, while the Ivory Coast’s Murilelle Ahore also dipped under 11 seconds in the heats.

Advice

2 pts Carmelita Jeter (7/4 Hills)

1 pt Blessing Okagbare (9/1 Boylesports)