The wind or lack thereof, caused a weather delay that lasted over three hours on Monday.
As the wind picked up, the women’s Laser Radial boats headed out to squeeze in at least one medal race before the sun set.
No wind turned to promising wind, promising wind turned to 38 knot wind and that was the end of it. After the women headed out to the water, the Laser Radial medal race got called off.
The men’s Laser and the women’s Laser Radial “are going to be the priority for [Tuesday],” a World Sailing representative said.
Two other classes will crown Olympic champions; The Finn class – which Giles Scott is a gold medal lock – and the Nacra 17 class.
Men’s Laser and women’s Laser Radial
Men’s Laser and women’s Laser Radial wrapped up their opening series races on Saturday afternoon. An unfortunate day of bad sailing weather caused the cancellation of the medal race on Monday, but they will race on Tuesday.
Gold medal favorite, Great Britain’s Nick Thompson, finished two seconds ahead of current leader, Croatia’s Tonci Stipanovic in race nine. Thompson sits in third overall.
Heading into the medal races on Monday, Australia’s Tom Burton took over the second overall position from five-time Olympic medalist, Brazilian legend Robert Scheidt, who was second overall after race eight on Friday, but dropped to fifth overall after disappointing finishes in the day’s last two races.
On the women’s side, Gold medal favorite Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherland’s, who was 10 points behind Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom, proved why she was the heavy favorite to win gold. Bouwmeester overtook the lead and finished the opening series with 47 net points. Rindom has 55.
Ireland’s Annalise Murphy maintained the third overall position with 57 net points.
Evi Van Acker of Belgium, the silver medal favorite, improved from seventh overall to fourth after winning race nine.
Paige Railey of Team USA, who sat outside medal race contention, finished fourth in race 10 and improved her overall result to 10th. She will race for an Olympic medal on Monday.
American Charlie Buckingham did not advance to the medal race.
Full results: Men’s Laser Day 8 of Olympic sailing
Full results: Women’s Laser Radial Day 8 of Olympic sailing
Men’s Finn
All Scott Giles has to do is participate and finish the medal race on Tuesday. He is 22 points ahead of second-place overall, Slovenia’s Vasilij Zogbar, who has 56 net points. Giles of Britain has clinched the gold medal, as no contender can score lower after the conclusion of the medal race.
American Caleb Paine‘s disqualification was overturned and his second place finish in race six held ground. New video evidence revealed that Croatia’s Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic stretched the truth after he filed protest against Paine in race six. Paine is now in medal contention in fourth-place overall heading into the medal race.
Full results: Men’s Finn Day 9 of Olympic sailing
Mixed Nacra 17
Americans Bora Gulari and Louisa Chafee didn’t have the best start to the Rio Games; they had double digit finishes in four of the first five races and capsized in one of them. However, they quickly turned that around and are now heading to the medal race on Tuesday. They persevered and managed single digit finishes in their last six races.
Heading into the medal race, Argentina’s Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza top the leader board with 65 net points. In second place, Italy’s Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri have 70 net points, only two points ahead of third place.
Full results: Mixed Nacra 17 Day 9 of Olympic sailing