Olympics heating up for punters as Usain Bolt runs in 200m Final and South Korea face Japan in football
Its a busy few days for punters as Bet365 publish a new free bets offer on the Olympics to coincide with Usain Bolt’s odds in the 200m Mens Final, while South Korea and Japan go head to head on Friday evening as they contest for the bronze medal in the men’s football draw.
Usain Bolt is definitely the man to beat as the Jamaican eased or ‘glided’ into tonight’s 200m final with a blistering time of 20.18sec, which simply reinforces his tag as the favourite at odds of 1/5. Compatriot Yohan Blake however is looking to shock the 100m champion, rocketing in a fastest qualifier time of 20.1secs.
This amiable character, nicknamed ‘The Beast’, will be hoping he can go one better than his 100m result, and after easing up on the line may be a bigger threat to Bolt over this distance, and is sure to attract attention from punters at 4/1.
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Those looking for a shock could do alot worse than backing France’s Christophe Lemaitre, the 22yr old running an electric time of 20.03 in the semi final, and at odds of 125/1 could be worth a punt as an outsider.
Also kicking off will be the Bronze Medal medal match in the football. Many had hoped that Great Britain would be able to take their place in a medal match at Wembley, but it wasn’t to be after they were knocked out by one of Friday’s competitors – South Korea.
Stuart Pearce’s men were knocked out on penalties at the quarter-final stage and there is no doubt that South Korea’s performance under this pressure highlighted some of their qualities.
However, in the semi-final against Brazil, they were unable to raise their game enough, going down 3-0 to the tournament favourites. In a way, there wasn’t much that South Korea could do against the brilliance of Neymar, Oscar and co.
They can be proud of their efforts to get this far though and if they are able to come away with a medal, it would be a significant achievement. Prior to the tournament, not many were talking about South Korea – they are now.
The highlight so far for them is definitely the victory over Great Britain, but they can take heart from a 2-1 victory over Switzerland earlier in the tournament too. They will be ready for this one and not too down hearted after the Brazil game.
As for Japan, they too were swept aside relatively comfortably at the semi-final stage. Having managed to not concede a goal up until this point, they would have been in confident mood when Yuki Otsu put them ahead early on.
However, they then conceded three goals either side of half-time and there was no coming back for them. Now, it is all about ending a tournament which started with a victory over Spain, with a bronze medal.
Both teams have some talented players, of that there is no doubt. In the end, it could come down to who is sharper after several games in a short space of time.
This battle for the bronze medal gets underway at 7.45pm on Friday evening.
