Hoffa and Dibaba value for first track and field golds

The London 2012 Olympic Games athletics program gets under way on Friday 3 August, with a dozen events kicking off and two of them - the men`s shot put and the women`s 10,000 metres - starting and finishing on the same day.

Bookmakers are betting 3-1 the field in the London 2012 Olympic Games men`s shot put that looks, on paper, to be a head-to-head battle between American athletes Reese Hoffa and Christian Cantwell, who are responsible for the best five pre-Games puts this year. Hoffa is the universal favourites, with Cantwell available at around 4-1.

Hoffa has beaten Cantwell in Lawrence, Eugene and Shanghai in 2012 and, therefore, he represents the best bet even though Cantwell`s 22.31m put in Champaign tops this year`s world rankings. He seems to be the stronger competitor.

That said, punters who back both Hoffa and Cantwell at the best prices are getting between 6-5 and 5-4 about one of them winning the London 2012 Olympic Games men`s shot put gold medal and that does not look like the worst bet ever.

The London 2012 Olympic Games women`s 10,000m promises to be one of the highlights of the track program, with Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot going up against Tirunesh Dibaba.

Cheruiyot took out the women`s 5,000m-10,000m double at last year`s World Championships in Daegu, while Dibaba won both of the long-distance races at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and has recovered from 18 months of injuries to post the fastest time over 25 laps in the world this year.

If bookmakers were betting each of two then London 2012 Olympic Games women`s 10,000m would be a classic no-bet event. However, Cheruiyot is around evens and Dibaba is around 15-8 so the latter represents a value play.

Of the 10 London 2012 Olympic Games athletics competitions that start but do not finish on Friday 3 August, there are a couple that offer up interesting pre-qualifying punts - the women`s discus throw and the women`s heptathlon.

If one puts aside concerns about her ability to perform on the big stage, Darya Pishchalnikova is a stand-out bet at around 9-4 to win the London 2012 Olympic Games women`s discus throw. She has recorded the top two throws in the world this year, with her best effort 1.80m better than anyone else and, also, registered in the last few weeks.

The London 2012 Olympic Games women`s heptathlon is all about Great Britain`s Jessica Ennis and how she deals with the enormous weight of expectation. The British media has been hyping Ennis since she won the 2009 world title.

Some bookmakers are out to lay Ennis because of her flops at a couple of major championships since Berlin three years ago but her performance in Gotzis two and a bit months back was so good that she warrants supporting at odds of around 5-6.

Ennis beat her biggest rival, Russia`s Tatyana Chernova, by 132 points in the pretty Austrian town famous for its annual multi-discipline carnival of heptathlon and decathlon. If Ennis, cheered on by a patriotic home crowd, can equal or better her Gotzis score of 6,906 then she should win.

There are four London 2012 Olympic Games swimming finals on Friday 3 August but none of the events appeal from a betting perspective. All of them feature odds-on favourites who will probably win but represent no great value at their prices.

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02/08/2012     © Frixo 2026