British star Ben Ainslie took second in Wednesday Finn class Olympic sailing to gain a six point overall lead on American challenger Zach Railey. The day had such light winds that some sailors spent hours languishing in the heat as they waited out race delays and postponements on their boats.
"It was a long wait for one race and the conditions were very light," Ainslie said after the second Finn race planned for Wednesday was postponed, probably until Thursday or Friday due to lack of wind. American favorite Anna Tunnicliffe stayed at the top of the Laser Radial class after six races, with a sixth place finish, while teammate Andrew Campbell took his first win in the men's Laser class, and the U.S. boat beat Britain in the three-woman Yngling class.
The U.S. duo of Tim Wadlow and Chris Rast scored two firsts and a 10th in racing by the fast 49er dinghies, but Australia's Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin maintained their first overall, one point ahead of Denmark and 11 points ahead of Italy. Despite the sailing venue of Qingdao, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Beijing, being notorious among sailors for light summer breezes, Wednesday was the first time all the races could not go ahead as planned because of lack of wind.
The day's second races were also postponed for the Laser, Laser Radial and Yngling classes, while the 470s and 470s dinghies competed their schedule for the day. Ainslie, who has two gold and one silver Olympic sailing medals, is the undisputed favorite in the Finn class, but has faced an unexpectedly tough challenge from world No.
11 Railey. The 31-year-old Briton climbed back from seventh place after the first leg, to trail Croatia's Ivan Kljakovic-Gaspic the rest of the way to the Croat's first win in the games.
Ainsley finished 2 minutes, 6 seconds behind, with Sweden's Daniel Birgmark in third, 2:17 behind. "In those conditions anything could have happened, so I'm pretty relieved to have come away with a good result," Ainslie said.
American challenger Railey, 21, also gained after being down as far as 14th or 15th place in the 26-boat fleet. "I was really fortunate to get seventh in that race.
I was sixth of seventh at the first windward mark, and just had a disastrous downwind .
at the bottom mark I was 15 or something like that.
It all went wrong," said Railey. Railey, who tries to sail conservatively, did something that is usually not part of his strategy: Taking a chance.
"I just had to calm myself down on the second upwind, and went out to the right of the fleet and I got some (wind) pressure and was able to get back. .
I had to do something to get back into the race," he said. After seven of the series' 11 races, Ainslie leads with 19 points, six points ahead of Railey with 25, and 11 ahead of Guillaume Florent of France, who was fourth on Wednesday.
"Six points is really nothing," said Ainslie. "There are three more races, probably, and the medal race, which counts double.
So I have to keep trying hard." In the women's Laser Radial, Tunnicliffe stayed in the lead with 15 points after three races, with Croatia' Mateja Petronijevic second overall with 22 points after a fifth place, and Gintare Volungeviciute of Lithuania third with 24 points, after an eighth.
Britain's Penny Clark won Race Three, 10 seconds ahead of New Zealand's Jo Aleh, and 33 seconds ahead of Israel's Nufar Edelman in third. The Laser, Laser Radial and Finn starts were delayed by nearly four hours.
"We were prepared to sit around a lot here, it was just all part of the plan," said Tunnicliffe. "We tried to stay cool and then really focused in when the time came.
" The U.S. Yngling crew of Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe and Deborah Capozzi took their first win of the games, for third overall with 33 points. But they remained well behind leaders Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson of Britain, who have 17 points, and the Dutch crew of Mandy Mulder, Annemieke Bes and Merel Witteveen who have 22.
In other classes, Australia was leading the double-handed 470 dingies for men, ahead in overall points of France and Britain, while the Dutch women took over the lead in the women's 470s, ahead of Australia and Spain. Racing continues Thursday for the 49ers, RS:X windsurfers, Laser, Laser Radial, Finn and Yngling classes.
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