FORMER Worcester King's School student Zac Purchase has been forced to wait 24 hour before making his bid to reach an Olympic final in Beijing.

Britain's lightweight rowers were unable to compete in their semi-finals after a thunderstorm forced the cancellation of Thursday's action.

The entire schedule at Shunyi was shifted to tomorrow, which was to be an off day for the rowers.

Purchase and Mark Hunter will go for Britain in the men's lightweight double, while Helen Casey and Hester Goodsell feature in the women's event.

Britain are also represented in the lightweight men's four.

Heavy rain began moving through the area about an hour before today's scheduled start of competition, pushing things back about 90 minutes.

A second rain band, this one accompanied by thunder and lightning, then followed the first cloudburst, prompting race officials to scrub the entire card.