Lane draw gives Greene medal hope in 400m hurdles Olympic final

Dai Greene is 10/1 to win the Men’s 400m hurdles final and although a victory looks tough, his lane draw has given him solid each-way claims at finishing in the first two.

Greene finished fourth in his semi final which meant that he had to rely on being a fastest loser to qualify for the final and so was not guaranteed a good lane draw.

However, he has been somewhat fortunate to get lane three, which is arguably the best he could have hoped for and certainly better than lane nine around the outside.

Although this is a tighter lane than he would have ideally chosen, he can at least keep the favourites in his sights on his outside and use them as a guide in terms of pace.

Meanwhile, Michael Johnson proved at the 1999 World Championships that athletes can recover from disastrous semi finals to gain victory.

Javier Culson had had Greene’s number all season and is the 5/4 favourite to carry his unbeaten record through the Olympics.

Culson looks the obvious pick in what will be one of the most competitive finals of the whole Olympics, but it is hard not to be impressed with Felix Sanchez in the semi finals.

Sanchez won Greene’s race with the fastest time of the year and his clocking of 47.76secs will almost certainly be enough for a medal if repeated in the final.

The Dominican is 6/4 to repeat his gold medal-winning display of the 2004 Olympics, but he will have to cut his own pace from lane seven.

American Michael Tinsley will have to break 48.00secs for the first time if he realistically wants a medal, but starts from the centre of the track, while countryman Angelo Taylor will be a threat if performing to his best given his flat speed.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.