South Africa will be hoping to bring some extra baggage home from Tokyo in the form of medals and we take a look at the betting odds on some of the events where we stand our best chance of success.
ATHLETICS
Akani Simbine has proven to be one of the fastest men in the world and he announced himself with a 5th place finish in Rio in 2016. He warmed up with a time of 9.84 seconds in Hungary a few weeks back and he looks well placed to shoot at a medal, perhaps even gold.
Simbine is 29/4 to win the 100m and 8/10 for a medal– click here to bet on the race winner
400m World Record holder and defending champion Wayde van Niekerk continues to work his way back from injury and while at the time of writing the 400m was not priced up you can keep an eye on all of the athletics markets by clicking here
SWIMMING
The betting suggests that Tatiana Schoenmaker is our best medal prospect in the pool and she is 31/20 to win Gold in the 200m breaststroke.
Chad Le Clos has done us proud over many years and stunningly beat Michael Phelps in the 2012 Olympics in the 200m Butterfly but he is priced as a 40/1 outsider in the same event in Tokyo.
Click here for all of the Swimming markets
CYCLING
Our men’s road race team are not given much hope of making an impact but in the women’s race Ashleigh Moolman-pasio is given a reasonable shot and is priced at 25/1
Look out also for Alan Hatherly in the men’s mountain bike race where he will take on the already legendary Mathieu Van Der Poel the 1/1 favourite. Hatherly is a massive 299/1 and while I cannot see him winning he must have an outside medal shout and I will be looking out for that market.
RUGBY SEVENS
The Blitzboks got bronze in Rio and they are priced to do likewise at 7/2 behind New Zealand at 9/4 and favourites Fiji at 21/10. If you want to take a more conservative option they are 5/10 to get a medal.
Unfortunately head coach Neil Powell tested positive for Covid in Tokyo and won’t be with the team which will now be handled by assistant coach Mzwandile Stick.
GOLF
There will be South African representation in both the men’s and women’s golf and although the prices suggest that a medal is unlikely the nature of the game means they are in with a shout.
Ashleigh Buhai is 159/1 in the women’s event and Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Garrick Higgo are 40/1 in the men’s event.
My Plays:
Main Bet: Simbine for a 100m medal at 8/10 double onto Schoenmaker 200m breaststroke winner at 31/20 with the double working out at 7/2
Other Bets: Simbine win gold at 100m at 29/4 and Higgo to win the golf at 40/1
There are plenty of other South Africans competing and hopefully I missed a couple of medal prospects
