2012 Olympics - Women's Keirin (Cycling)

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 Mearesv 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 Shuangof 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)