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Paul Day’s Olympics’ Update

August 8th, 2016 | Marten Julian's Guest Contributor News

I was delighted to see Van Avermaet win the Men’s Road Race and Van der Breggan win the Women’s Race. In fairness, they were very competitive races and both needed a fair share of luck to win, but both were excellent selections by my friend who specialises in cycling.

He predicted Dumoulin would not use up any energy in the Road Race and he duly abandoned early.

There was a window of opportunity because people interpreted Dumoulin stopping as an indication his broken wrist was causing him problems. Dumoulin is totally committed to the Time Trial and the vibes are strong that he will go very well on Wednesday. I love his attitude. He is a real fighter. He will be in pain with his wrist but I believe he’ll just keep going come what may.

Froome has been the long-term favourite but he had a brutal race on Saturday and the money has slowly come for Dumoulin to the extent that he is now favourite, trading at 2.6 / 2.72 on Betfair. I still think it’s a fair price.

I will try to get some inside information on Van der Breggan before the Women’s Time Trial, but I know the Dutch were hopeful she could win both. The market has not really formed as yet, so it’s best to await further news.

The swimming has been excellent viewing and Team GB had success overnight with Adam Peaty, 100m Breaststroke Gold and World Record, and Jazz Carlin, 400m Freestyle Silver.

Unfortunately the timings of the heats and finals don’t allow me to update the website between the heats or for the finals, that commence at 2am.

I can say I don’t expect our World 200m Freestyle champion, James Guy, to win his final overnight but the market has now taken account of his current weaker form.

I didn’t know what to expect from Michael Phelps at this Olympics, but his performance last night in the 4x100m Freestyle relay for USA was mighty impressive and he collected his 20th Olympic Gold Medal. It will be great to watch him in his individual events.

Bye for now

Paul