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I am very surprised to see Keely Hodgkinson is still as big as 8/15 with Paddy Power/Betfair. I am not really betting much at the moment but anyone who likes lumping on odds on chances should take as much of that as they can. The 1/3 with William Hill looks like a far more accurate reflection of her chance.
It is difficult to see anyone doing anything between now and December to rival her. Emma Finucane might have done but “only” 1 gold medal has probably scuppered her chance (66/1 with Hills).
Luke Littler is second favourite but I cannot see him winning, even if he had won the World Championship. Mark Cavendish is third favourite but his achievement in breaking the record of stages won in the Tour De France is not the sort of thing which interests the wider public that much. He needed to win the Tour to have any chance.
Hodgkinson will almost certainly win and deserves to – but I am sure the BBC will do its best to remind the voting public. I doubt they want anyone winning who achieved their victories on channels away from the BBC.
Now this isn’t good. There is apparently nothing wrong with it under the rules as they are but I would suggest they seriously need looking at if this is allowed.
It’ll be interesting to see what the Italian reaction is given that, as some of them see it, one of their own was on the wrong end of a different but related situation, albeit in a far more dangerous sport.
“There will be the overall feeling that Team GB has underachieved.”
I think they did. The gold medal count has been steadily decreasing since 2012.
Team GB receives plenty of public funding, mostly from the National Lottery. Each gold medal cost £17.55 million. Taking silver and bronze into account, each medal cost £3.78 million. Athletics, cycling and swimming all received large amounts of public money for very few golds.
Then there are fairly elite sports like yachting which receive public money but returned one gold – and that was in kite surfing.
Should some sports, where there is little prospect of success, even receive public money at all?
Britain was only seventh in the medals table. That was behind the Netherlands – a country with a fraction of the population.
Perhaps expectations need to be realistic. Other nations have started to close the gap in some sports. There is China to consider – is their regime above a bit of cheating, like the Soviet Union and East Germany? And there were some dubious judging decisions, especially in the boxing ring.
But even taking all that into account, questions will start to be asked if the medal haul in Los Angeles is not better.
All fair comment I’d say.
One thing that stands out is the number of seconds and thirds, it would not have taken much to be two, three or even four places higher in the table. But sport is a game of fine margins, so you could easily point to golds (from all nations) being a whisker away from being silver. Total medals have been very consistent since 2012, you have to ask why so many are not quite making it over the line.
Think you’re probably right about seeing how LA goes. If the ‘return on investment’ doesn’t improve then things will be looked at.
Let’s face it, it’s an Olympic year, England did not win the football and the clear second favourite for SPOTY is a darts player who is probably only there due to the BBC’s heavy promotion of him. He’s been brilliant but ultimately he did not win the World Championship (almost a racing certainty to do so at some point of course). Third favourite Cavendish has had a stunning career but he’s only there based on his past exploits, and he is a past winner so in a sense he has already been rewarded for them.
Hodgkinson now best priced 4/11 to win SPOTY and as short as 2/7 with several firms.
Lando Norris now a third of the price and clear third favourite for SPOTY at 11/1 (with the 1/3 1-2 still there) off the back of one dominant win. He has a long way to go but he’s 5/2 for the F1 title and if he does that then a top 2 SPOTY finish is odds on in my opinion.
Hodgkinson should be home and hosed now. Norris’ title chances all but evaporated yesterday, I doubt he’ll even make the list now. A masterful drive from Verstappen and too many mistakes by Norris and his team. Plus a needlessly petulant outburst by Norris describing Vertstappen as ‘lucky’. I know emotions were high but it was unnecessary.
I know we’ve said it before but it’s a shockingly bad list for an Olympic and Euros year.
Agree it is a surprisingly thin year, considering the Olympics and Euros.
Hodgkinson now best priced 1/4, with a few firms going 1/5. It will be a serious shock if she doesn’t win.
This story isn’t going away:
SPOTY shortlist revealed:
Difficult to see it as anything other than a straight contest between Hodgkinson and Littler.
Root looks like he is on the list in honour of his whole career, rather than anything specific to this year.
Bellingham has no chance and (no disrespect intended) nor does the Paralympic competitor.
Mark Cavendish not being on the list is clearly the main talking point.
Cavendish should be there ahead of Bellingham all day long. It’s clearly a two horse race but he deserves the recognition. Bellingham’s main achievements have been with the very much non-British Real Madrid. If anything Root should a nominee either if he does something big in the next Ashes or in the year when he actually calls time on his career.
I see the incumbent IOC president’s preferred candidate Kirsty Coventry unexpectedly won the race to be his successor above a couple of more fancied opponents including our own Seb Coe. Move along folks, nothing to see here.
Some years ago I tried to get a Handball team started at UWE (Bristol), with a Latvian friend, but there was literally no interest. It’s very much a minority sport here.
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