Team GB medal hopefuls in action: July 30

Liam Tancock (GETTY IMAGES)

Your one-stop guide to the Team GB medal hopes in action at the Olympics today...

Paul Goodison

Age: 34

Place of Birth: England

Main Event: Men’s Laser

Rival: Tom Slingsby, Australia

Medal Prospects: Hot favourite for gold

Paul Goodison is the current reigning Olympic champion in his category and London will be his fourth Games. Coming into the Games the Yorkshireman is ranked number one in the world and holds the Olympic, European, World and British titles. With such a wealth of success and experience behind him, he will be expected to take gold but the highly talented Tom Slingsby cannot be discounted.

Dates of event: July 30 – August 6

Odds: 4/1

Alex Gregory, Tom James, Pete Reed, Andrew Triggs-Hodge

Ages: 28, 28, 30 and 33

Main Event: Men’s Four

Rivals: Australia beat Team GB in June

Medal Prospects: Will be a hard fought battle for gold between GB and Australia

The team won gold in 2008 in a close race for the finish against Australia and France. This time round, with Alex Gregory rowing instead of Steve Williams, they will be looking to recreate that success. The Australian team are in great form so it promises to be a real battle.

Dates of event: July 30 – August 4

Odds: 8/13

Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins

Age: 36 and 29

Main Event: Women’s Double Scull

Rivals: The closest team to them are the Australians

Medal Prospects: Firm favourites for gold.

Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins should be Britain’s most certain gold at London 2012 and a victory in London would be the icing on the cake for Grainger who has won three Olympic silver medals in her career. The duo have been a fearsome undefeated partnership since they joined up in 2010, winning all three World Cup events this summer in the build-up to the Games.

Dates of event: July 30 – August 3

Odds: 4/11

Tom Daley & Peter Waterfield

Age: 18 & 31

Main Event: Synchronised Diving 10m platform

Rival: China, as always, are the team to beat.

Medal Prospects: Their last performance showed that they can be gold medal contenders.

Preparation for the Games hasn’t been perfect for the duo thanks to Waterfield suffering a neck injury and consequently not being able to train as much as they would have liked. A poor display at the Olympic test event in February caused concern over how the two would perform this summer but a superb performance in June at their last event before the Games saw them break their personal best by more than 15 points and surpass the Beijing 2008 gold medal winning score by seven points.

Date of event: July 30

Odds: 14/1

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 29 – July 30

Odds: 16/1

Gemma Spofforth

Age: 24

Place of Birth: England

Main Event: 100m Backstroke

Rival: Australian Emily Seebohm

Medal Prospects: Has the ability to win gold.

Gemma Spofforth has struggled with serious emotional problems away from swimming since the death of her mother in 2008 and last year was set to quit the sport. However, the 100m backstroke world record holder hauled herself back to the pool and qualified for Team GB. On her day, as her world record proves, she has the ability to dominate the field and since she is leaving the sport after the Olympics she is determined to put everything into this last event.

Dates of event: July 29 – July 30

Odds: 12/1

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.

Dates of event: July 28 – August 1

Odds: 8/11

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: Anyone of the two men ranked above him – although a rematch with Roger 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.

Andy Murray became the first British 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

Ben Ainslie

Age: 35

Place of Birth: England

Main Event: Men’s Finn

Rival: Zach Riley, USA

Medal Prospects: Looking to make it four gold medals.

London 2012 will be Ben Ainslie’s fifth Olympic Games and sees him in the hunt for his fifth medal to add to his three golds and one silver. Ainslie has dominated the sport in recent years and in May won seven out of nine races at the Finn Gold Cup in Falmouth. However at the pre-Games regatta in June he showed he could have an off- day when he capsized and finished second.

Dates of event: July 29 – August 5

Odds: ½

Iain Percy & Andrew Simpson

Age: Both 36

Main Event: Men’s Star

Rival: Robert Scheidt & Bruno Prada, Brazil

Medal Prospects: Will be aiming for a silver

The duo won gold in 2008 in Beijing but their build-up to 2012 was difficult as Iain Percy was hit with a back problem at the World Championships in 2011. However, the two have worked hard and returned to the World Cup circuit in April where they vied with their Brazilian rivals for top spot. Their final warm-up competition saw them finish third in Weymouth in June.

Dates of event: July 29 – August 5

Odds: 7/2

Annie Lush, Lucy MacGregor and Kate MacGregor

Age: 32, 25 and 20

Main Event: Women’s Elliot 6m Team

Rival: Team USA are their closest competitor for top spot.

Medal Prospects: Should get at least silver but will be aiming for gold

The team first came together in 2010 and have since won National, European and World Championship titles. Annie Lush has experience at Olympic level having been part of the GB set up in Athens in 2004. Lucy MacGregor, the elder of the two sisters, skippers the boat and has a long and impressive track record for a 25-year-old. Her younger sister Kate, 20, may not have as much experience but has ample skill. As a group they have already shown their ability and will be firmly in the hunt for a medal come Games time.

Dates of event: July 29 – August 11

Odds: 11/5