World Athletics Championship betting tips: Best bets for men's events

World Athletics betting tips: Men's track & field

1pt Zharnel Hughes to win men’s 100m at 7/1 (Unibet, Betfred)

1pt Wang Jianan to win men’s long jump at 14/1 (bet365, Betway)

1pt Berihu Aregawi to win men’s 5000m at 15/2 (General)

1pt Great Britain to win men’s 4x100m relay at 12/1 (General)

0.5pt Botswana to win men’s 4x400m relay at 66/1 (Sky Bet)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

The World Athletics Championships 2023 starts on Saturday in Budapest just a year after the last Worlds were held in Eugene, Oregon following the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games.

While a couple of events have not been priced up as yet, most bookmakers will be offering odds although good luck if you’re looking for each-way wagers. Even in seemingly competitive betting heats, it’s win only all the way. In many cases, the aim of the game is to find the vulnerable short-priced favourites and oppose them accordingly.

Hopes high for Hughes

The men’s 100m looks a wide-open affair with defending champion Fred Kerley under something of a cloud.

For much of the season, he was targeting double gold in Budapest but had over four weeks off before the U.S. Trials with little clue as to why judging by his social media. Already guaranteed a place in the 100m, Kerley ran the 200m but could only finish fourth and thereby missed out.

Then came his first defeat of the year over 100m in a blanket finish at last month’s Silesia Diamond League. Surprise U.S. Trials winner Cravont Charleston led for about 95m but finished fourth as South Africa’s Akani Simbine, Kerley and Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon came through late. That was Kerley’s last run and I am keen to oppose him as he has clearly lost that aura of invincibility he had early on in the season.

The former 400m specialist is the 2/1 clear favourite with the rest of the field 5/1 or bigger. Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala is having a superb year and claimed his first Diamond League win in Monaco although that wasn’t the strongest of fields. Second that day was Botswana’s exciting youngster Letsile Tebogo who looks a greater threat over 200m. Those sentiments also apply to reigning 200m world champion Noah Lyles who was only third in the 100m U.S. trials.

Simbine was my pick for the Tokyo Olympics but he has a growing list of disappointments at major competitions. Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs has appeared just once this summer as he struggles with injury. So I’m going for ZHARNEL HUGHES to claim Britain’s first 100m world title since Linford Christie in 1993.

• CLICK HERE to back Hughes with Sky Bet

Hughes has long been touted for great things and used to train with Usain Bolt. The Anguilla-born sprinter won his semi-final in Tokyo but false-started in the final. He blamed that on cramp and I have some concerns about his body standing up to the demands of three races in two days although he did win the 2018 European title (took silver in 2022 behind Jacobs) under similar circumstances.

He is in the form of his life and broke Christie’s 30-year-old British record with 9.83 which remains the fastest time in the world this year and while there are a good many contenders, I think Hughes is the value at 7/1 with Unibet. Note also that Sky Bet currently have him as their 15/2 price boost.

The 200m has been priced up as a two-horse race with Lyles around the 2/5 mark and Tebogo 7/2. Lyles edged out the African in the London Diamond League with Hughes breaking John Regis’ 30-year-old British record in third. You could argue that Lyles is a little short but it’s a race I’m happy to watch.

The 400m is the race of the championships as far as I’m concerned. I was hoping reigning Olympic champion Steven Gardiner might be a bigger price but he’s the rightful favourite and now a shade of odds-on following the late withdrawal of last year’s winner Michael Norman.

With the resurgent Wayde van Niekerk, young Zambian star Musala Samukonga and a former world and Olympic champion in Kirani James in the field, this should be a cracker but I don’t see anyone beating Gardiner.

Relay outsiders worth chancing

Now’s probably as good a time as any to look at the relays. We all know the Americans have had trouble getting the baton round in the 4x100m – they took silver last year with a couple of dodgy handovers – and I’m keen to take them on with their strength certainly down on previous years.

Canada are the defending champions and the same quartet – including Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown – share this year’s fastest time with Japan who are lively outsiders at 33/1.

Like USA, Jamaica are some way shy of their best but GREAT BRITAIN are very much a team on the up despite a late change to the line-up.

• CLICK HERE to back Great Britain with Sky Bet

With three Brits under 10 seconds this season – Hughes, Eugene Amo-Dadzie and Reece Prescod – plus Jeremiah Azu who led off last year’s European Championship triumph which was achieved without Prescod on the anchor leg, they looked a big price at 12/1 with Hills.

The late exit of sprints coach Darren Campbell is worrisome, but the odds are extremely tempting against a team which could well improve past the rest, and that remains the case since the withdrawal of Prescod.

It's a blow, but it sounds like he had missed plenty of practice beforehand and Jona Efoloko – his most likely replacement – was part of both last year’s world bronze and European gold teams. I suspect Amo-Dadzie or Hughes will now run the anchor and their chances remain solid.

In the 4x400m, Norman’s withdrawal leaves the United States below full strength. For the first time in living memory, they don’t boast a genuine individual 400m contender unless Bryce Deadmon steps up markedly on the world stage. Their fastest man this season is hurdler Rai Benjamin and, with times achieved in the United States often not replicated elsewhere, quotes of 1/16 are nothing short of ridiculous.

Second favourites Jamaica should go well but I’m chucking a few pennies at BOTSWANA at a huge price.

• CLICK HERE to back Botswana with Sky Bet

They have three men in the individual 400 headed by Bayapo Ndori who was part of the quartet that won Olympic bronze two years ago. Add in Tebogo and you have four sub-45 men this season giving the successors to Isaac Makwala a real medal chance.

This team looks every bit as strong on paper as the one that made the podium in Tokyo and the doubts about the market leaders make them definitely worth a punt at 66/1 with Sky Bet.

With reigning 1500m world champion Jake Wightman injured, Jakob Ingebrigtsen looks nigh-on unopposable this time round. The Norwegian is prohibitively priced at 1/6 but should be able to control the race from the front.

He is vulnerable in the 5000m, however, with the Ethiopians likely to employ team tactics to try and beat him. Ingebrigtsen has chosen not to run the distance so far this season and second favourite Joshua Cheptegei is without a win in 2023.

BERIHU AREGAWI produced a superb front-running performance to beat Cheptegei in Lausanne in the fastest time in the world this year.

• CLICK HERE to back Aregawi with Sky Bet

He was second to compatriot Hagos Gebrhiwet recently in Monaco without showing the same spark as he did in Switzerland. That was another quick time with Spaniard Mo Katir breaking Ingebrigtsen’s European record in fourth.

At 15/2 generally, I really like Aregawi’s chances and may have a saver on Gebrhiwet at some point.

Ingebrigtsen’s teammate Karsten Warholm is 1/4 to regain his 400m hurdles title. Having finished seventh last year in an injury-interrupted season, he has gone on a 12-race unbeaten run since and there is no reason why he should not beat old rivals Alison dos Santos and Rai Benjamin again.

Grant Holloway is 6/4 to complete a hat-trick of 110m hurdles world titles and that looks about right with Rasheed Broadbell just behind him in the betting. It’s 6/1 bar with Japan’s Shunsuke Izumiya and Jason Joseph of Switzerland interesting outsiders although I don’t think either will have enough to beat the top two.

Value in the field hard to find

Moving to the field, there’s a short-priced favourite in the long jump with Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou a general 7/4 shot. But the Greek was denied at the death by WANG JIANAN in Eugene a year ago, and I fancy the Chinese to do similar this time round.

• CLICK HERE to back Wang with Sky Bet

Tentoglou looked to have victory in the bag with the longest three jumps of the competition after five rounds, the best of which was 8.32m. But Wang produced a final round leap of 8.36m to snatch a remarkable gold given he had competed just once previously that summer. And he was down in fifth place before that dramatic finale.

Wang has not competed much in recent years but comes into these championships in better form than 2022. In two outings this year he has jumped 8.22m and 8.26m – the latter into a headwind – which are more than competitive. Indian pair Jeswin Aldrin and Sreeshankar hold the longest jumps of 2023 with 8.42m and 8.41m respectively but both lack major competition experience.

Tentoglou’s 8.34m at the Silesia Diamond League into a 1.3m/s headwind was the best performance of the summer. Former decathlete Simon Ehammer is worthy of his place near the top of the market while Commonwealth Games champion LaQuan Nairn looks a huge price at triple figures in places.

If each-way betting were available (sigh), Wang would be a very strong pick with Nairn worth a few pennies. As it is, the 14/1 from bet365 and Betway is too big to ignore about the reigning champion.

I’m not sure there are any more favourites worth opposing. JuVaughn Harrison could repeat his London Diamond League win over high jump king Mutaz Essa Barshim, but the Qatari is clearly a man for the big occasion and I won’t be betting against him claiming a fourth consecutive world title.

The discus sees Kristjan Ceh and Daniel Stahl continue their duel while Wojciech Nowicki, Mondo Duplantis and Ryan Crouser look bankers in the hammer, pole vault and shot put respectively. In the former, five-time reigning champion Pawel Fajdek is second favourite but looks past his best based on performances this season.

Grenada’s Anderson Peters is bidding for a third consecutive javelin world title but has been well below par this year. India’s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra is a general 5/4 favourite with Czech Jakub Vadlejch next best at around 5/2.

A muscle strain has restricted Chopra to just two appearances this season and he was victorious in both the Doha and Lausanne Diamond League meets. The last of those was at the end of June and he is clearly saving himself for a big effort in Budapest.

On figures, there has been very little to separate the pair and European champion Julian Weber so far this term with Vadlejch’s world-leading 89.51m coming two months ago. German thrower Weber could well be the value here given that he beat Vadlejch to take last year’s European crown.

After finishing fourth at Tokyo 2020 and in last year’s Worlds, he’ll be desperate to win his first global medal. I’m tempted to back him at 7/2 for gold but may wait until after qualification to get involved.

Posted at 1615 BST on 17/08/23

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