There are six gold medals available on day 8 with Steve Hooker going for gold in the Men’s Pole Vault and Dibaba looking to win her forth gold medal in the Women’s 5000m.
The Gold Medal Events
Men’s Pole Vault
Going into the 2008 Olympics no Australian male had won an athletics gold medal since 1968. Then Steve Hooker wrote himself into the history books, clearing every height on his third attempt on his way to wining the gold medal.
Fast forward four years and after being the dominant force in pole vaulting, winning every title that was available to him through 2008-2010, over the last 18 months Steve has struggled with a case of the ‘yips’.
The effect of this has been that he has had difficulty taking off the ground in the pole vault and spent many frustrating competitions and training sessions running through. In the meantime Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie has established himself as the new number one and favourite for the gold. In qualifying Steve only had to have one jump, he took off the ground and cleared the bar easily. He certainly looked better than as he has all year.
However Steve has not jumped off his full run up as much as he would have liked and that may show when it gets to the medal winning heights. My tips are Lavillenie for gold, Walker for silver and Hooker for bronze.
Women’s Hammer Throw
As you might expect eastern Europe dominates the women’s hammer throw but the haircuts are relatively modern and the girls are athletic. You will be surprised to see that the two best hammer throwers in the world are actually quite fit looking.
Aksana Miankova from Belarus tops the world list this year but, like her compatriot who won gold in the women’s shot put, she has not yet competed outside of her own country. My tips are Miankova for gold, Lysenko for silver and Heidler for bronze.
Women’s 5000m
Cherulyot, Defar and Dibaba between them have just about swept the medals in women’s distance running over the last 4 years. Cherulyot won the 5000-10,000m double at last years World Championships.
Dibaba won both those races at the 2008 Olympics and already has the 10,000m gold from this one and is going for a Usain Bolt style double double. Defar is the least credentialed of the three as she has only won the bronze medal in the 5000m at the 2008 Olympics and the last two World Championships.
Cherulyot has run the fastest time in 2012 but after her gold in the 10,000m Dibaba has shot to favouritism. Whatever happens, this is likely to be one of the highlights of the games. My tips are Dibaba for gold, Cherulyot for silver and Defar for bronze.
Women’s 4x100m relay
The USA generally go into any relay race as the favourite but in the case of the Women’s 4x100m they have not won gold at the Olympics since 1996. This event will be a race in two between the USA and Jamaica. USA had three women in the 100m final compared to Jamaica who had two but the eventual gold medallist.
USA dominated the heats but if the Jamaicans can fix up their terrible changes they will push the Americans all the way. My tips are USA for gold, Jamaica for silver and Trinidad and Tobago for bronze
Women’s 1500m
Only one woman has gone under 4:00 more than once this year and that is Abeba Aregawi from Ethiopia. Her job to win gold has been made easier as out of the other eleven girls who have gone under four minutes this year, only four of them are in the final. Out of those Alptekin looked the next best in the heats.
Whilst the two Australian girls did not make it our of the semi finals, we do have some interest in this race with Steve Hooker’s partner Ekaterina Kostetskaya (‘Aussie Katya’) from Russia in this race. My tips are Aregawi for gold, Alptekin for silver and Kostetskaya for bronze.
Men’s 4x00m relay
When in doubt in the Men’s 4x400m relay, pick the USA. The last time they were beaten in a race in the Olympics was 60 years ago.
They may have only qualified second and did not have an athlete in the flat 400m final but in qualifying one of their athletes apparently broke his leg halfway though his run and they have two men who made the final of the 400m hurdles to bring into the team. Bahamas qualified quickest and with two men in the 400m final they have a quality team.
Australia did not make it through the heats and I look forward to hearing more about the comments that John Steffensen made after the race. My tips are USA for gold, Bahamas for silver and Great Britain for bronze.
Other Australians
Our men’s 4x100m relay team line up in the heats. We did not have a runner in the individual 100m race and we only just qualified to come to the Olympics. Barring a large number of teams failing to get the baton around, we will not progress to the final.
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