Clearwater’s Zach Railey (left) and Britain’s Ben Ainslie keep an eye on each other in the medal race of Finn Class on Saturday in Qingdao, China. The race was abandoned due to a lack of wind.

Clearwater sailor Zach Railey, who is in strong position to capture an Olympic medal in the Finn class, will have to wait at least until Sunday to collect it.

Once again, the wind did not cooperate Qingdao, China, and the medal race was abandoned shortly after it started Saturday.

After eight preliminary races, British star Ben Ainslie is assured at least a silver medal on total points, no matter what happens in the medal race. The medal race was introduced for the Beijing Games and awards double points. Ainslie has an 12-point lead on Railey, while Railey is nine points ahead of Sweden’s Daniel Birgmark.

Before officials called off the race, Ainslie and Railey were fighting it out at the back of the fleet, in ninth and 10th after nearly two legs. Clearly, Ainslie, the defending Olympic champion, was covering every move by Railey to make sure he could not threaten Ainslie’s gold with a top finish.

At 30 seconds before the start, the fleet of 10 Finns in the race were free to accelerate and none of them were close to being over the starting line. Railey had managed to get himself a clear start at the bottom third of the line but moments later, he came back below the line. He later explained he though he had heard a horn for a individual recall for being over the line early, but there had been none.

The mistake allowed Ainslie the chance to cover Railey and at the top mark of the course, Ainslie and Railey were bringing up the rear of the fleet. That gap only grew larger on the downward leg. As boats rounded the leeward mark, the wind had died so badly that sailors were making little progress upwind. The race was then called off and rescheduled for Sunday.

When Railey was asked if he was accustomed to this type of match racing, Railey said “We’ve been preparing for this and I think I showed that pretty effectively yesterday.”