Winter Olympics Betting: Brit Watch Day 15

Britwatch / Dan Fitch / 27 February 2010 / Leave a comment

Adam McLeish claims that he's no longer Candian, but don't bet against him watching the ice hockey final tomorrow.

Dan 'The Betting Man' Fitch bids a weary farewell to the Vancouver Winter Olympics and consoles himself that at least the British have left themselves with a matchable medal target, for four years time.

"GB1 now sit down in 21st position, which is even worse than Portsmouth, although things will be about even when they have the 9 points taken off them."

The Winter Olympics come to a close this weekend, like a big metaphorical needle piercing the skin of Team GB, before finally putting the sick animal out of it's misery.

I have to say that I'm feeling a little relieved myself. It's been a tough job trying to find rays of hopes amongst collective failure. Not a proper tough job, like working down a mine, but in the context of my cushy life, the words that have been typed by these un-calloused hands have had a gruelling effect on the author.

So like a relative who you enjoy seeing once in a while, but has overstayed their welcome at Christmas, there's a certain amount of relief that this is all over. At least now BBC HD can return to normal. The Winter Olympics is all well and good, but when it starts to interfere with the scheduling of Mad Men, then things are going too far.

You won't be surprised to learn that yesterday was jam-packed with heroic British failure, with Jon Eley not proving to be speedy enough in the speed skating and John Jackson managing to crash the four-man bobsleigh, just as he had managed with the two-man. I've seen safer driving from James Dean.

GB1 now sit down in 21st position, which is even worse than Portsmouth, although things will be about even when they have the 9 points taken off them. You can get odds of [800.0] on Jackson and Co. turning things around to win gold. The only way they could go that fast would be to coat their bobsleigh in cooking oil.

It's the men's slalom today, with British hopes resting on the shoulders of Ed Drake and Dave Ryding. If the performances of the British skiers thus far have been anything to go by, then it's fair to say that it's quite literally all downhill from here.

Adam McLeish is in action in the men's parallel giant slalom snowboarding. McLeish was actually born and raised in Canada and qualifies to represent Britain through his parents.

So he's a bit like Lennox Lewis, but unfortunately without the bit where he's the best in the world at his chosen discipline. McLeish can be backed at [80.0] to win gold, a price much higher than you could have ever got for Lennox in one of his fights.

Last but not least, we dab at our collective eyes for our final British hope. Andrew Musgrave competes in the men's 50km mass start cross country skiing on Sunday. He doesn't have a chance of a medal, but then he's only 19. At least he's got the potential of youth on his side, unlike some of these sad saps whose late twenties finishing positions match their age.

There's not much left to say than 'goodbye'. This is the end of the Winter Olympics Brit Watch for another four years, when we'll all be older, wiser and hopefully, slightly better at curling.

Tags: adam mcleish, andrew musgrave, british bobsleigh team, ed drake, vancouver betting, winter olympics betting