Monday, 30 July 2012: France traded at an amazing $95 in-play during this morning's 100m freestyle relay before brilliant sprinter Yannick Agnel flew home to claim gold ahead of America, who were backed at odds of $1.10.
But most of the post-race talk surrounds the poor showing by the red-hot favourites Australia, who were backed from $1.56 (post-heats) to a starting price of $1.31, only to finish fourth.
Punters on Betfair were so certain that the team of James Magnussen, Eamon Sullivan, James Roberts and Matt Targett would finish with a medal that over $12,000 was traded on them at odds of between $1.03 and $1.05.
It appears that most of the blame for the lacklustre performance is being hung on Magnussen, who led off the relay in an attempt to break the individual world record, only to touch in second behind the United States.
Betfair players are so concerned with Magnussen's performance that he's blown from $1.31 to $1.94 to win the individual 100m freestyle gold medal with France's Agnel a significant market mover from $10.50 to $6.
The highlights from the pool this morning were Christian Sprenger's silver medal in the men's 100 breaststroke, the bronze for Alicia Coutts in the 100m butterfly and the continuation of Emily Seebohm's sizzling form in the 100m backstroke.
Sprenger was an $8 chance to win gold and had been backed at $3.35 to win a medal in the breaststroke but managed to finish the runner-up with his first ever sub 59sec swim. Gold medalist, Chris Van Der Burgh of South Africa, justified his favouritism to win in world record time, an option for which $8 was available to Betfair backers.
Seebohm is now considered a near certainty to win the women's 100m backstroke gold medal at $1.21 after being as much as $15.50 prior to the start of the swimming competition.
Leisel Jones heads into the final of the 100m breaststroke as a $22 chance to win gold with unheralded Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte ($1.82) overtaking American great Rebecca Soni ($2.04) as the favourite to win gold.
