Friday's Olympic Games predictions: USA talent a danger in men's 800m

Three things to watch out for in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Saturday morning.

Best bet

Clayton Murphy to win men's 800m
1pt 8-1 Betfred

US trials winner Clayton Murphy looks back to his bronze-medal form of five years ago and is a major contender in a wide-open contest.

Men's 800m

Saturday, from 1am

The glory days of Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett are long gone but Team GB have genuine medal contenders over two laps.

Elliott Giles has the fastest indoor time in the world this year – breaking Coe's long-standing mark – and Oliver Dustin ran the fastest time outdoors in June, a time subsequently lowered by a handful of other runners.

Among those is Botswana's Nijel Amos – the only man to dip under 1.43 this season – though he's a short price in such a competitive field. US trials winner and Rio third, Clayton Murphy, Poland's converted 400m hurdler Patryk Dobek and Kenyan ace Emmanuel Korir are better value dangers.

Women's triple jump

Saturday, from 1am

Yulimar Rojas goes into the competition nailed on at 1-5 and having produced the five longest leaps this year – all over 15 metres – she's hard to oppose.

The Venezuelan's longest jump – in Spain in May – was almost 50 centimetres further than the next best has achieved this year, Jamaica's Shanieka Ricketts' wind-assisted effort in Doha in May.

In the last few years, world champ Rojas has cleared 15 metres 17 times – no one else has done so at all. Ricketts has beaten her but that was two years ago, and Rojas has to be a good thing.

Men's pole vault

Saturday, from 1am

Sweden's Armand Duplantis is the red-hot favourite for gold and his task has been made that bit easier by American world champ Sam Kendricks' withdrawal after a positive Covid test.

'Mondo' does look unbeatable, having won all 16 meets last year and 11 out of 12 this year.

That one loss, in awful conditions in Gateshead, will have his rivals praying for rain. However, the man who beat him that day – Kendricks – is out, and danger man Renaud Lavillenie is recovering from a recently twisted ankle.

If there's an outsider to latch on to it's maybe 40-1 shot Thiago Braz, who pulled off an upset five years ago to claim gold and is one of a few men to go over 5.80m this year.

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