Thanks to a lapse in concentration – along with a blistering
and sadly unrewarded performance from the Chinese - we sadly didn’t get to see
round one of Anna Meares v Victoria Pendleton but the Keirin should see one of
the true epic battles between the two in the Velodrome tonight.
Pendleton is sure to be more motivated than ever to get a gold
in her last Olympics following her team’s disqualification in the sprint yesterday
– where they would have been in the gold medal final – and she should be as fierce
as ever in competition but Meares is the current World Champion in the
discipline and rates as a very strong bet to land the first Olympic title in
this event. The rivalry with Pendleton actually
originated when Meares upset Pendleton in 2006 with a bold move in the Keirin,
cutting her off, which has given birth to some of the great battles we all
relish in this event, and since the two have traded rainbow jerseys amongst
other things, but Meares specialises in this event and looked nigh on
unbeatable when taking the world championship event in Melbourne with a
stunning final lap sprint win. On the biggest stage of them all, she’s the
obvious choice over the home favourite, even with Pendleton clocking some
blistering times yesterday in the sprints.
It’s seen as a two horse race by the bookmakers but it’s not
that simple with former rainbow jersey holders in the event, Lithuania’s Simona
Krupeckaite and Guo Shuang of China, lurking should anyone make a mistake early
in the heats, as Pendleton did when eliminated from the A final in Melborune. Krupeckaite actually beat Meares in the warm up event here and was second to
Meares in the individual sprint in Melbourne this year, while Shuang finished
4th, 4th and 8th at the last three world championships for the Keirin but blitzed
the track yesterday to set a World Record twice and then take the wrongly
denied sprint gold. Picking between the two is very hard but Shuang was
electric yesterday and might be the biggest threat here to Meares at a tasty 9/1 in places.
Advice
3 pts Anna Meares (13/8 Bet365, Coral)
1 pt Guo Shuang (9/1 Betfred, Hills)
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