Olympics tips: 5 rowing best bets for Tokyo 2020 Games

Check out these Olympics rowing tips including Irish, British and Australian contenders.

Olympics tips Rowing best bets

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change

There are 14 rowing events at the Olympics this year with 526 separate competitions taking place at Sea Forest Waterway in the heart of Tokyo. Competitors from Great Britain and Northern Ireland are seeking to maintain the country’s impressive rowing record at the Olympics and bring medals back home.

The USA is the most successful nation of all time when it comes to Olympics rowing, with 89 medals. That is closely followed by East Germany (33 golds)! But in recent years Great Britain (68 medals), Germany (51) and Australia (40) have dominated the waterways.

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For Olympics betting fans seeking to make gains from the action in Japan, the rowing events are where plenty of the drama will unfold.

Indeed, we could well see world records broken this summer and a fairly even distribution of the medals. And so, Paddy Power presents five top Olympics tips for the rowing in Japan… including our NAP!

Women’s Coxless Four – Australia (8/11)

It’s nearly 30 years since the Women’s Four was raced at the Olympics but finally this event is back on the schedule. And Australia are all set to claim victory here.

The Aussies won this race by more than two seconds at the 2019 World Rowing Championships and Olympia Aldersey, Katrina Werry, Sarah Hawe and Lucy Stephan should all be back to challenge again. They are favourites ahead of Netherlands, who claimed silver in Ottensheim two years ago.

Women’s Lightweight Double Skulls – Great Britain & NI (2/1)

Emily Craig and Imogen Grant are the pair to beat in the Women’s Lightweight Double Skulls. The duo have kicked on from their bronze at the Worlds in 2019 and claimed European Championship silver in this discipline in 2020. By no means guaranteed a win here, Craig and Grant are certainly on for a medal.

Dutch pair Marieke Keijser and Ilse Paulis (who came second in 2019) are priced behind the British duo. It’s perhaps an understatement to say Great Britain are favourites here only because New Zealander Zoe McBride retired this spring.

Olympics tips rowing Ireland

Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy are on course to win gold for Ireland (GETTY)

Men’s Lightweight Double Skulls – Ireland (3/10 NAP)

Another successful duo from the 2019 Worlds are Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy. The Irish pair have years of experience and gold medals on the continental and global stage. O’Donovan himself is an Olympic silver medalist after rowing to second place in the lightweight double skulls alongside his brother Gary five years ago.

McCarthy, the younger of the pair, won his second gold medal with O’Donovan at the European Championships in Varese this April. They finished ahead of the Germans and Italians that day and are priced as heavy favourites to pick up only Ireland’s second gold medal this century. 

Men’s Single Skulls – Denmark (11/5 NB)

Germany’s Oliver Zeidler is something of a nemesis of Danish rower Sverri Sandberg Nielsen. Zeidler claimed gold at both the European and World Championships in 2019, and gold in the 2021 Europeans. It was Nielsen who emerged victorious in the single skulls at the 2020 Europeans in Poznan.

The pair are expected to duke it out here in Tokyo and claim the top two medal places. Zeidler is the narrow favourite to win but Nielsen’s price makes him a solid NB. The difference between the pair when they last met on the international stage, in April, was less than a second. We’re in for another thrilling race here if they both navigate their heats.

Men’s Coxless Pair – Croatia (1/10)

There is not a rowing bet that is more one-sided that the men’s coxless pair. Croatia’s Martin Sinkovic and Valent Sinkovic have hoovered up golds in this event after opting to move away from the double skulls following their victory in Rio.

Having dominated Plovdiv, Glasgow, Lucerne, Ottensheim and Varese, there really is nothing more these guys can do but win gold in Tokyo. They are perhaps the most solid acca addition you will find this summer.

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