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Clearwater's Railey Sails To Silver Medal

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By DOUG MELLGREN

The Associated Press

Published: August 18, 2008

Updated: 08/18/2008 12:33 am

QINGDAO, China - Clearwater's Zach Railey said his goal going into the Finn sailing event at the Olympics was to earn a medal.

Mission accomplished.

The first-time Olympian finished the competition Sunday in second place to earn the silver medal for the United States.

"I picked up the silver medal and it all came out like I hoped," Railey said.

Britain's Ben Ainslie won his third gold and Guillaume Florent of France won the bronze.

The Beijing Games marked Olympic sailing's first use of medal races. The top 10 boats in a series of preliminary races advance to the medal final, which counts double in determining each boat's total score.

In the medal race, Ainslie - guaranteed at least a silver on overall points - led the whole way in tough conditions, sometimes disappearing from view altogether as his dinghy dipped under the crests of waves. It was a sharp contrast to Saturday, when the medal race was abandoned because the wind died.

"It was totally different today. I was able to change the game plan a bit against Zach and sail my own race a little more. So I'm very happy to have won it," Ainslee said.

"The goal was to win gold, and with the conditions being stronger, it was easier for me to go out and use my speed and my fitness," said Ainslie, who has a gold in the Finn for 2004, as well as a gold in 2000 and a silver in 1996 in the Laser class. Only Danish sailing legend Paul Elvstrom has won more Olympic sailing gold medals, with the four he won between 1948 and 1960.

The weather has been the big story in sailing this week. One day, boats were bobbing around on the water like corks, with no wind to move them, and the next day, some were cart-wheeling in the gale-force winds and heavy waves, or seeming almost to fly over the water with their spinnakers bulging.

That's quirky Qingdao, a port of the Yellow Sea that can be a sailor's dream or a sailor's nightmare.

The racing venue, some 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Beijing, is known for light and shifting summer winds, plus strong currents that challenge sailors.

But it is also known for the occasional summer squall, like the one that hammered the waters with winds and downpours as sailors raced for medals on Sunday. The winds and waves had the fast, manta ray-like 49er dinghies capsizing, cart-wheeling and some breaking their masts, while it made the usually slow Yngling boats surf the waves like speedboats.

Wind at Qingdao started being especially feeble and fickle on Wednesday, the fifth day of Olympic sailing, when organizers had to start postponing some races. It stayed that way, with light winds disrupting the schedule through Saturday, when two medal races, in Finn and Yngling, were canceled.

Railey said he had been training for Qingdao's quirky conditions and acknowledged how difficult it is to read conditions here.

However, it's tough to wait for the start, especially of a medal race.

The Finn class was seconds away from a final start twice on Saturday, and then did start, only to have the race called off. On Sunday, they were called back to port because of too much wind and rain, and then started nearly three hours delayed when conditions improved.

"You just have to calm yourself down," Railey said.

Jennifer Lilly, a meteorologist for the U.S. team, said one day of very strong winds appears to be a Qingdao racing tradition.

"The same happened at the '06 and '07 test events. One day was really windy," she said.

Lilly said waves turn dramatic very quickly at Qingdao when winds pick up and work with the strong currents to churn up the water.

"It's not normal, but is not strange," she said about the Sunday's weather.

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