Olympic Men’s Long Jump – Betting Preview & Odds

Rutherford to jump to gold again?

Olympics

Another of Great Britain’s top gold medal chances at Rio 2016 is Greg Rutherford in the Long Jump. He withdrew from the British Athletics Championships in June 2016 and up until then, Rutherford had his hands on every available elite outdoor title that was available in the discipline, holding the National (British), Continental(European), Commonwealth, Diamond League, World and Olympic titles Long Jump titles.

He goes a strong favorite to capture gold again as he did four years ago on Super Sunday at London 2014, when he, Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis-Hill all wrapped up gold medals for Team GB in the same session. He doesn’t actually hold a world record in the long jump, but holds the British long jump record both indoors and outdoors. He set the new indoor record this year and just last match defended his European Championship title with an 8.25 jump.

Back in 2012, Rutherford made it to the Olympic final coming in fourth place in qualifying, but then took the tournament by the scruff of the neck in the second round when he took the lead and extended his advantage in the fourth round with an 8.31m jump. He was just the second Briton to ever win gold in the discipline. One thing about the 2012 gold though, is that it was the shortest ever winning jump for gold in the event.

Still, he beat his nearest competitor by 15 cm so it didn’t really matter at the time. So can Rutherford deliver the goods again as he heads to Rio 2016? If you look at the market, where Rutherford is outright favourite, then it suggests that he is going to have things his own way. Jeff Henderson won the 2015 PanAm Games and was gold medalist in the 2014 USA Outdoors. He has recorded a personal best of 8.54 but that was wind-assisted. His official personal best is 8.43m so it suggests that the could get in the mix, but isn’t as consistent as Rutherford.

Then you are only looking at Jarrion Lawson and Marquis Dendy to make inroads into Rutherford’s reign. American Dendy though could be a great dark horse in the field. Last year he recorded a jump of 8.68m (wind-aided) but that is the longest jump recorded by anyone in the last five years. If he can pull that kind of effort out, then he could be well in the hunt for a medal.

Mens Long Jump Outright

Greg Rutherford 9/4, Jeff Henderson 4/10, Jarrion Lawson 5/1, Marquis Dendy 6/1, 10/1 bar

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