Australia's male swimmers value to win freestyle relay

There are a total of four London 2012 Olympic Games swimming gold medals available on Sunday 29 July and bookmakers have installed the correct favourites for only two of them.

The feature London 2012 Olympic Games swimming event on day two is the men`s 4x100 metres freestyle relay in which the world`s fastest swimmers team up for their nations. Barring a series of disasters in the pool, the scrap for gold will be between the Australians, the Americans and the French.

Australia is the 8-11 favourite and deservedly so. Its squad won the equivalent race at last year`s world championships in Shanghai, with James Magnussen, Matthew Target, Matthew Abood and Eamon Sullivan combining to register a winning time of 3:11.00, 14 hundredths of a second faster than France, with the United States of America in third.

If anything, Australia looks set to increase its margin over France and the United States of America. Magnussen tops this year`s 100m freestyle world rankings and another Australian, James Roberts, occupies second position. In total, Australia has four swimmers in the top 15 and the advantage that the top two have over the rest of the world is substantial.

Provided that Australia`s team performs to its potential and does not make any silly mistakes, the 8-11 is an excellent bet. You could argue that it should be 1-3 or even shorter.

Dana Vollmer is the other London 2012 Olympic Games swimming favourite worth backing on Sunday 29 July. The American is odds against to win the women`s 100m butterfly gold medal despite leading the world rankings and recording faster times than she did in winning last year`s world title.

Vollmer swam a time of 56.42 seconds at the recent Olympic trials in Omaha, which was nearly half a second superior to the effort that she produced in Shanghai 12 months ago.

Sweden`s Sarah Sjoestreom and Australia`s Alicia Coutts have swum sub-57-second times since the beginning of 2011 but Vollmer has more than three-tenths of a second on both of them. The American is over the odds at around 5-4.

Kosuke Kitajima and Camille Muffat are the two London 2012 Olympic Games swimming favourites worth avoiding on Sunday 29 July. Both of them could win their respective events but the Japanese and the Frenchwoman seem to be underpriced.

Kitajima is the general 8-11 favourite for the men`s 100m breaststroke that will be an emotional affair because the late Alexander Dale Oen would have been the market leader had he not passed away tragically at the age of 26.

The Japanese is the fastest man over two breaststroke laps this year but he flopped at last year`s world championships when he could only manage fourth in the 100m final and second in the 200m final. Also, at 29, Kitajima is a swimming veteran and likely to be on the downturn.

It is 9-1 bar Kitajima in the men`s 100m breaststroke but pinpointing the man most likely to take down the Japanese is difficult. Italy`s Fabio Scozzoli is probably the top pick.

Muffat is a false 8-11 favourite for the London 2012 Olympic Games women`s 400m freestyle gold medal. The Frenchwoman was no match for Italy`s Federerica Pellegrini at last year`s world championships and Great Britain`s Rebecca Adlington made sure that she had to settle for just bronze.

Pellegrini represents excellent value at around 9-2 even though Muffat leads this year`s world rankings.

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27/07/2012     © Frixo 2024