Grevers to prove old men can swim

Day three of the London 2012 Olympic Games will see a dozen gold medals handed out, including four in the swimming competition that attracts so much media attention.

All that Matt Grevers, of the United States of America, has to do to make London 2012 Olympic Games men`s 100 metres backstroke quotes of 5-4 look ridiculously generous is reproduce his form from the recent Olympic trials.

Grever qualified for the London 2012 Olympic Games by taking out the Omaha preliminary in a time of 52.08 seconds, the second-best two-lap backstroke effort in history and within a whisker of Aaron Peirsol`s three-year-old world record set in an era when swimsuit technology was markedly different.

At 27, Grevers is flying in the face of swimming convention and improving with age. The two-time Olympic Games relay gold medallist attributes his improved individual times to the changes that he has made to his training regimen, saying that it has taken him 27 years to suss out how he works.

The numbers speak for themselves, with Grevers 36 hundredths of a second faster than anyone else in the men`s 100m backstroke since the beginning of 2011. The American warrants odds-on favouritism so he is value at 5-4.

The women`s 100m backstroke is a feature of day three of the London 2012 Olympic Games as well and an American swimmer is the 7-4 favourite for it in the shape of Missy Franklin.

There is absolutely no doubt that Franklin, who tops this year`s world rankings, is capable of winning over two laps but she does not appear to have that much of a better chance than Russia`s Anastasia Zueva, the current number two seed.

Zueva is the speed machine of the two, with the 22-year-old Russian superb over 50m and the 17-year-old American at her best over 200m. It is anyone`s guess as to whom will emerge triumphant over 100m but the gap between the two in the betting seems too large so back Zueva at around 3-1.

The easiest London 2012 Olympic Games swimming gold medal of day three to predict is the women`s 100m breaststroke one that should find itself hanging off the neck of Rebecca Soni, the 200m champion in Beijing four years ago.

Soni has dominated the women`s 100m breaststroke since the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and could win the London 2012 Olympic Games event by more than a second, which is an incredible margin for a two-lap race at the top level.

Bookmakers are laying Soni at 2-5 and the American looks someone worth including in multiples to boost returns.

The London 2012 Olympic Games men`s 200m freestyle, even without Michael Phelps, is an extremely difficult race to decipher with no fewer than four or five serious contenders.

Ryan Lochte will leap from the blocks as the London 2012 Olympic Games men`s 200m freestyle favourite at around the 5-4 mark but the American, winner of last year`s world championships scrap, does not lead the world rankings.

That honour goes to Yannick Agnel, while Germany`s Paul Biedermann and Korea Republic`s Tae Hwan Park are not all that far behind the Frenchman and the American.

The London 2012 Olympic Games men`s 200m freestyle is a race to savour without a bet but, if you must have a financial interest, Lochte is an acceptable wager at odds against.

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27/07/2012     © Frixo 2024