5th August 2012
Women's 400m Hurdles Betting: Perri Shakes-Drayton can win gold for Britain 20 years on from Sally Gunnell
Twenty years after Sally Gunnell won the Olympic women’s 400m hurdles title in a wave of glory in Barcelona, Britain has another athlete with the potential to win gold in the same event when the competition gets underway at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday night. Perri Shakes-Drayton will be honoured with the target of winning gold for Britain this time around but it is the Russian Natalya Antyukh who is the 4/1 favourite for gold with Bodog.
Antyukh was the bronze medallist in the World Championship last year but she comes into this competition with the fastest time in the world this year under her belt which will give her confidence going in. It must be said though that the women’s 400m hurdles has been quite weak this year. Antyukh is the only woman to run under 43.50s and even then she has only run under 44s once this year which shows how open this event is, as the 4/1 the field betting does.
Lashinda Demus of the United States comes into this competition as the world champion. She ran the third fastest time in history to win the world title last year but she hasn’t been at her best this season and will be hoping the big stage and competition can bring the best out of her. Melaine Walker is another who goes well in competitions and is the defending champion coming in here but she has run poorly this year.
When you look at the times and the recent form of Perri Shakes-Drayton you would have to put her in as a major player in this race. Then when you factor in the performances of the GB athletes already and the clear motivation they are getting from the crowd then Shakes-Drayton becomes an even bigger gold medal chance. I always had her down as being too nice to win but we saw at Crystal Palace that isn’t the case as she dominated a very strong field. These are literally her home games, she is from East London and will have plenty of support and that support could just see her become the Olympic champion. At 6/1 she’s worth a small bet to win the competition but at 7/5 she’s worth an even bigger one to medal.
Back P.Shakes-Drayton to win Women’s 400m Hurdles for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Stan James
Back P.Shakes-Drayton to win a medal in Women’s 400m Hurdles for a 3/10 stake at 2.40 with Betfred
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Author: 'Arry Allsports
