Tokyo Olympics Odds: Men's 200m Odds & Prediction

Noah Lyles is the favourite to win the 200m at this summer’s Olympics, which won't surprise anyone. The 24-year-old recorded the fastest time this season running 19.74 at the end of June, putting him as the fastest in the world in this discipline. Lyles also has a World Championship gold medal which he won at the back of 2019, and as a fresh 24-year-old, this should be his time to take over the Olympics.

This will be Lyles’ first senior Olympic games and he will be wanting to make the 200m his own after the retirement of Usain Bolt. Lyles’ is not a stranger to Olympic games however as he has competed in the Youth Olympic games, finishing first in the 2014 edition in Nanjing.

The American may even set his sights on beating Usain Bolt’s world record of 19.19, but he is still just off the pace in this regard.

Andre De Graase is the man set to rival Lyles for the gold medal in Tokyo, and he remains the closest one to do so. De Graase is currently ranked second in the world, but his time in his most recent race is a long way off his best. In May he ran a 19.89, which is 0.09 seconds off his personal best set in 2016, so he will have to perform a lot better if he is to challenge Lyles.

This will be the Canadian’s second Olympics, and in Rio, De Graase finished second behind Bolt and will be wanting to try and claim that number one spot again.

By far the youngest of the favourites in the 200m, 17-year-old, Erriyon Knighton, has already shown what he is capable of as in June he broke Usain Bolt’s U18 200 metre record running 20.11. Now, he will be looking to go one better and secure a medal at the Tokyo games, but the gold seems too far aware for this youngster.

Knighton goes into the Olympics ranked 12th overall but despite his age and ranking, he was able to run 19.84 in June which puts him as the fourth quickest worldwide. He will definitely believe he can have an impact at the games and possibly secure himself a medal at such a young age.

The second quickest man going into the Olympics, Kenneth Bednarek, will be pushing Lyles and De Graase for the gold medal and at the very least, battle for the silver medal. In June he finished 0.04 seconds behind favourite Lyles in the USA and was quicker than De Graase overall. As of now, he is ranked fifth overall in the world rankings, but his times suggest that he will be challenging for a medal.

This is the American's first Olympics, and he will also be wanting to make an impact and state his claim to dominate the discipline for years to come.

One of the outside favourites is Nigerian, Divine Oduduru, as in April, he ran a 19.88 which puts him as the fifth quickest in this 200m. As of now, however, Oduduru is currently ranked 23rd in the world so will be looking to show his best in Tokyo.

This will be his second Olympic games and will be wanting to show a better outing than he did in Rio. In Brazil, the Nigerian finished 20th in a very poor performance, but has since shown signs of improvement, finishing first in the NCAA 200m race in 2019.

By Jack Meenan