The legend of Usain Bolt has never looked stronger and having proven that he was once and for all that he’s the fastest man in the world with victory in the 100m on Sunday, and for many the 200m just looks to be a formality for the sprinting legend. No man has successfully defended both the 100 metres and 200m “A double double” in Olympic Sprinting terms, with only Lasse Viren defending individual track titles between successive games, but Bolt, now just 1/4 for his second gold at the games and has often been described as a better 200m runner than 100m, looks set to do so barring accidents according to himself, the bookmakers, and the 100m final.
If in the same form – and his jog towards the final in the semis says nothing less – than he should beat Yohan Blake – a superb sprinter in his own right and a very impressive runner up in the 100m final, as well as an excellent winner of his semi when he had any amount in hand, easing down strongly late on but still posting 20.01 in the toughest semi of them all so far. His superiority to the rest of the field is reflected in the fact that a Bolt/Blake 1-2 in any order is just 2/7, although it’s been suggested by Michael Johnson that Blake’s harder training schedule could help him here, and his Jamaican trial win here was the more impressive of the two to my mind, but I’d want better than 4/1 to consider the upset. Indeed, Bolt is available at 11/2 for a win on Skybet’s handicap market, which sees him giving 0.22 secs to Blake and upwards of -0.52 to the rest of the field. World Championship form suggests he can do so.
The battle for Bronze is set to be fought out between four runners, each of whom has a realistic claim at the last podium spot. After the heats, all the talk was about Warren Weir possibly making it a medal sweep for Jamaica - which would be only the seventh in the history of the 200m at the games – although his semi was a little less impressive than his heat win and despite his precocity, others appeal more, including Churundy Martina of the Netherlands who showed enough pace to make it into the final of the 100m, running 9.94.
Judged by Blake’s semi-final, both will have to go some to beat Wallace Spearmon and Christophe Lemaitre, who were flattered to get so close to Blake but are capable of running sub 20 seconds when the occasion calls for it and will be tough to get past. Lemaitre hasn’t had the best run up to the final, but the Frenchman did a lot of late work in attempting to run down Spearmon and may have done it with a better bend. The Bronze medallist at the World Championships last year, Leimatre has made countless waves in sprinting – he’s the only white man to run under 10 seconds – and might be the third best here again at 11/4 with Boylesports looking to be the best of the prices without Bolt or Blake, while the 8/11 on him beating Chrundy Martina or Warren Weir also looks good, with Weir just looking the weaker of the two.
Advice
1 pt Usain Bolt on Race H’cap (scr, 11/2 Skybet)
1 pt Christophe Lemaitre w/o Bolt or Blake (11/4 Skybet)
2 pts Cristophe Leimatre to beat Warren Weir (8/11 Skybet)
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