Athletics Highlights
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Athletics Betting with William Hill
On your marks, get set, go. William Hill sets the pace when it comes to providing athletics odds.
Whether it's the Olympic Games every four years, the World Championships every two years or the Diamond League circuit that takes place every season, we've got all of the athletics betting markets covered.
Understanding the athletics events
Ask many people to name a successful athlete and it's highly likely that the first reply of many will be Usain Bolt.
The Jamaican sprinter dominated both the men's 100m and 200m disciplines for the best part of a decade, logging world records in both events.
However, athletics in far more than completing the 100m in under 10 seconds. Alongside the sprints, there are both middle and long-distance running events on the track, alongside throwing and jumping field events.
There are even relays and multi-discipline events for both men and women. Jessica Ennis-Hill excelled in the women's heptathlon when justifying her poster girl status to claim gold in the London Olympics in 2012.
In total, at a major event such as an Olympics or a World Championships, there will be as many as 47 gold medals to be won, spreading across both male and female disciplines.
Among the individual events are the 400m, 10,000m, 3,000m steeplechase, 110m hurdles, triple jump, pole vault, shot put and javelin.
William Hill will have athletics betting markets on them all, while pay a visit to news.williamhill.com to reap the benefits of athletics betting previews, tips, insights and the latest odds.
Understanding the athletics betting markets
It will come as no surprise that whatever the athletics event, the main betting market will relate to picking the winner.
However, in the major meetings where medals are up for grabs, there are likely to be additional athletics odds on whether a particular athlete will secure a top-three finish, as a result earning themselves either a gold, silver or bronze medal.
Keep an eye out for any athletics specials too, especially in events where two competitors are considered particularly big rivals or there's a real possibility of a new world record being recorded.
How to win betting on athletics
There are numerous pieces of advice that can be offered to improve the prospect of someone making a successful athletics bet.
Among the biggest is to not back the biggest names in the sport, simply because they are the most recognisable.
Just because an athlete has won gold medals at a certain event before and even if they maintained dominance in the previous season, there are many reasons why they may struggle to replicate their prior accomplishments.
They may not be fully fit after injury, there may be a new up-and-coming athlete who is simply superior or they may just generally be past their best and so on the decline.
However, it's not guaranteed that any of this will be taken into account in the athletics betting, with a former hero still priced up as a clear favourite, despite this not being the case in actuality.
A good example was in the women's 100m at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, when 2012 gold medallist and 2013 world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce topped the athletics odds.
In 2016, Fraser-Pryce was attempting to become the first woman to secure three successive 100m Olympic titles, but much of her season had been impacted by a toe injury.
Jamaican teammate Elaine Thompson had been irresistible throughout much of the season and despite not being the 100m Olympic athletics betting favourite, she was a comfortable victor in a speedy 10.71 secs.
Fraser-Pryce was only third in 10.86 secs.
Through considering both seasonal and recent form, Thompson seemed a worthy favourite, but past glories meant that Fraser-Pryce was awarded this status. This was ultimately proved the wrong decision.
Athletics betting tips
Following on from the above, if doing research into which athletes run the quickest, jump the highest or throw the furthest, season's bests are more important than personal bests.
For example, in the women's 100m hurdles, Sally Pearson would have one of the fastest personal bests in any race, having clocked a scorching 12.28 secs in 2012.
However, replicating such times has been difficult in recent years, having a season's best of only 12.68 in 2018.
Therefore, based on PBs, the Australian would be a borderline favourite, but on 2018 form, she would be an outsider to gain a medal in a major final.
The hurdles is also a good example of an event where one error is extremely costly. Should an athlete fail to jump a hurdle accurately, they could lose momentum, fail to maintain their top speed through being off balance or even fall over.
Those betting on athletics would be shrewd to know the event they are betting on. In those events where the effects of an error are maximised, it may be a value bet to go against a short-priced favourite in case they make a mistake.
Alternatively, in an event like the 1,500m, race tactics can have a big bearing on the result.
Should the early pace be slow, the race plays to the strengths of the competitors with the strongest finishing kick. This could be the athlete with the slowest personal best in the field.
However, should they go hard from the starting gun, the same athlete could be well beaten with 200m to go and have little hope of achieving a medal.
By knowing the event and being able to predict a slowly-run race, one of the outsiders in the athletics betting may have a better shot at achieving a medal than both their odds and season's best suggest.
After all, American Matt Centrowicz won 1,500m gold in Rio in an incredibly pedestrian time of 3:50.00. He finished eighth in the same event at the World Championships the year previous, despite running 3:36.13.
British athletes to follow
If you wish to place some patriotic punts among your athletics bets in the coming years, there are a collection of British athletes capable of mixing it for medals on the British stage.
In the women's disciplines, Laura Muir has emerged as a truly world-class athlete at middle distances, with 1,500m for now seeming her strongest event.
There are sprinters in both the male and female ranks capable of reaching major finals and mixing it for medals.
Reece Prescod is similar in build and running style to Usain Bolt and continues to improve, while Dina Asher-Smith broke British records over both 100m and 200m in 2018.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson is the latest in a lengthy line of top-level heptathletes, while former heptathlete Morgan Lake now specialises in the high jump and is one of the strongest candidates for a field-event medal.