Mark Cavendish
Age: 27
Place of Birth: Isle of Man
Main Event: Men’s Road Race
Main Rival: Thor Hushovd, Norway
Medal Prospects: Is the strong favourite for gold.
The record-breaking stage winner in the Tour de France is made for this event and has the added motivation of being able to win the first home medal of the Games. For sheer speed Cavendish is unmatchable and is very comfortably the fastest road sprinter in the sport. However, he will require the rest of his team to put in a big performance if he is to dominate the race as expected.
Date of Event: July 28
Odds: 2/1
Chris Bartley, Peter Chambers, Richard Chambers and Rob Williams
Age: 28, 22, 27 and 27
Main Event: Men’s Lightweight Fours
Rivals: Australia
Medal Prospects: Will be in the fight for either a gold or silver medal. A very encouraging last year saw the crew take silver at the Rowing World Cup in Belgrade followed by bronze in Lucerne and then a superb gold in Munich in June overcoming great rivals Australia. This excellent run of results suggests that London could be the time for this crew to really shine.
Dates of event: July 28 – August 2
Odds: 15/8
Squad: Marcus Bateman, Ric Egington, James Foad, Matt Langridge, Alex Partridge, Tom Ransley,. Mohamed Sbihi, Greg Searle, Phelan Hill
Ages: 29, 33, 25, 29, 31, 26, 24, 40 and 32
Main Event: Men’s Eight
Rivals: Germany
Medal Prospects: Hopefully silver but there is real competition for the podium. The crew started the year well finishing second in successive World Cup regattas behind main rivals Germany. However, in Munich last month, they failed to capitalise on the Germans’ absence and dropped to third. The result in Munich shows just how tight the field is and that behind the Germans there are a few countries vying for silver and bronze.
Dates of event: July 28 – August 1
Odds: 11/2
Frances Houghton, Debbie Flood, Beth Rodford and Mel Wilson
Ages: 31, 32, 29 and 26
Main Event: Women’s Quadruple Sculls
Rivals: USA will be their main rival in the battle for bronze
Medal Prospects: At best bronze
This crew are not as strong as past Quad Sculls crews and have found it difficult at times in the last year. They failed to make the world final in 2011 but did manage to win a bronze at the World Cup earlier this year. Houghton is the most experienced, having won Olympic silver in the last two Games, and she will have to lead the team to an exceptional performance if they are to get amongst the medals.
Dates of event: July 28 – August 1
Odds: 12/1
Heather Stanning & Helen Glover
Ages: 27 and 26
Main Event: Women’s Pair
Rivals: New Zealand
Medal Prospects: Look set to become the first British women to win Olympic gold. Helen Glover may have only been rowing for five years, but she has rapidly become one of the top rowers in her discipline. Her partnership with Royal Artillery captain Heather Stanning has been formidable and due to the schedule of the Games, these two could beat fellow Brits Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins to the honour of being the first British women to win gold in rowing.
Date of event: July 28 – August 1
Odds: 8/11
Anthony Ogogo
Age: 23
Place of Birth: England
Main Event: Boxing Middleweight
Rival: The favourite is Ievgen Khytrov of Ukraine
Medal Chances: In with a good chance of gold.
Anthony Agogo has taken up the mantle of GB’s Beijing gold medal winner James DeGale. He won silver in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and thanks to some intensive training is now in top form for of the Games. He has been training in the same gym as current IBF world super-middleweight champion Carl Froch and this may give him the inspiration and edge he needs to win gold.
Dates of event: July 28 – August 11
Odds: 20/1
Luke Campbell
Age: 24
Place of Birth: England
Main Event: Bantamweight boxing
Rival: Lazaro Alvarez Estrada. Cuba
Medal Prospect: One of Britain’s best chances for boxing gold.
Luke Campbell took silver at the World Amateur Boxing Championships last year and is seen as a favourite for gold at the Olympics this summer. Two years ago Campbell was described as the benchmark for British boxing after going on an unbeaten run of 23 matches and he is still seen as the example for other British boxers to follow.
Dates of event: July 28 – August 11
Odds: 13/2
Zara Phillips, Kristina Cook, William Fox-Pitt, Piggy French and Mary King
Ages: 31, 41, 43, 31 and 51
Main Event: Team Eventing
Rival: Germany won gold in Beijing
Medal Prospects: The team will be confident of improving on the bronze they won in 2008.
Team GB have a wealth of experience in their eventing team this summer. London will be Mary King’s sixth Olympics, William Fox-Pitt’s fourth and Kristina Cook’s second. Surprisingly this is Zara Phillips’ first Games as she missed the last two because her horse was injured, while it is also Piggy French’s Games debut. The combination of experience and ability mean that the team will be hopeful of improving upon the bronze that they won in Beijing in 2008.
Dates of event: July 28 – July 31
Odds: 5/2
Andy Murray
Age: 25
Place of Birth: Scotland
Main Event: Men’s Singles Tennis
Rival: Either Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic – although a rematch with Federer is the one that will be most hotly anticipated.
Medal Prospects: He came so close at Wimbledon that he will surely back himself to go that one step further on his return to the grass courts.
Any Murray became the first man to reach a Wimbledon final for over 70 years in July but was prevented from winning the title by a sublime Roger Federer. The London Olympics sees tennis return to the grass courts of West London and give the Scot another chance to claim glory at the home of British tennis. Murray's job became a little easier when Spain's Rafael Nadal pulled out of the Games.
Dates of event: July 28 – August 5
Odds: 17/2
Liam Tancock
Age: 27
Place of Birth: England
Main Event: 100m Backstroke
Rival: Frenchman Camille Lacourt is the current joint-world champion
Medal Prospects: It all depends on if he can hang on in the closing stages of the race, but he should be able to make at least bronze.
Liam Tancock is only the second British male swimmer to have retained a world title, a feat he achieved last year. The problem is that this was done in the 50m backstroke, an event that is not an Olympic discipline. The shortest Olympic backstroke distance is 100m in which he finished sixth at the Beijing Games. Consequently Tancock is an outside bet for a medal; it all depends on whether he can transfer his 50m prowess into the longer version of the race.
Dates of event: July 28 – July 29
Odds: 16/1
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