Australian windsurfer Grae Morris guarantees medal, set for gold medal showdown

Australian windsurfer Grae Morris will have a “big dinner, good dessert and a great sleep” then wake up in Marseille and chase Olympic gold.

The stocky 20-year-old guaranteed himself a medal on his Olympic debut by finishing the Paris Games qualifying series in first place.

The former rugby player is now set to face off in the final with Tom Reuveny of Israel, who qualified in second place, and New Zealand’s Josh Armit.

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The three windsurfers will race for gold at Marseille Marina in the south of France on Saturday morning (AEST).

“Big dinner, good dessert and a great sleep,” Morris said when asked how he would prepare for the decider.

He spoke to Wide World of Sports for a feature published in February about his background as a schoolboy rugby fullback.

Born in Sydney to Kiwi parents, the 100-kilogram unit idolised All Blacks legends Richie McCaw and Dan Carter and dreamed of pulling on the famous black strip.

He played first XV rugby at Sydney’s Cranbrook School but dropped the 15-man game to go all in on windsurfing when he graduated.

“I’m pretty bloody happy [about specialising in windsurfing, that’s for sure,” Morris told Nine’s Alex Cullen waterside in Marseille.

“Rugby helped me on my path to getting where I am, everyone around me in rugby also helped and it’s just carved who I am today. So it all paid off.”

Morris this week became the first Australian man to contest Olympic windsurfing since the Sydney 2000 Games.

“It does ease my mind a little knowing that I’ll be coming home with something in my hand,” he said.

“But I won’t be fully satisfied until it’s over.”