Olympic Games Betting: Will Usain Bolt Win The 100m?

Mens 100m: Sunday 5th August
Semi finals: 7.45pm
Final: 9.50pm

Can Usain Bolt retain the 100m gold at the 2012 London Olympics? That seems to be the question on everybody’s lips as we approach the fastest race in the world this evening.

There seems to be a new contender in the offing, and it is none other than Bolt’s training partner Johan Blake. Blake won the 2011 World Championship gold in Daegu after Bolt’s disqualification for a false start, and has been improving ever since.

His time of 9.92 secs was impressive at the time, but Johan Blake has since gone on to run a personal best of 9.75 in Kingston, Jamaica this year, and is a live contender to steal Usain Bolt’s crown.

Betting wise, the race appears to be between Bolt (4/5) and Blake (13/8). They are indeed the fastest sprinters on the planet, but don’t totally dismiss a couple of the others.

Young American Ryan Bailey is now considered 3rd favourite at 14/1 to land the gold after a personal best of 9.88 in his first round heat. He had qualified in third place in the US trials, and has shown great improvement.

Controversial Justin Gatlin (16/1) is also amongst the top contender in London. Serving a 4 year doping ban between 2006-2010, Gatlin has found a good level of form, setting a new personal best of 9.80 this year in the 100m sprint.

US record holder Tyson Gay is now considered to be in a down trend in his career, and made the Olympic team by competing in a rather low key ‘B’ race in the US trials, recording a time of 10.00 secs. He does, however, have the title of being the only sprinter to beat Usain Bolt in a final since Beijing 2008.

Gay shouldn’t be totally written off, but a bronze medal may be the best possible outcome for the American.

If Usain Bolt turns up, he surely wins it. It’s been said that his head is all over the place and that Johan Blake is fast becoming a really dangerous threat. This could well be true, but the London Olympics track is running incredibly fast, and a fit Bolt should simply smash it.

The spectacle of track athletics is will be over in less than 10 secs.. But make sure you’re there to witness it at 9.50pm!