Paris Olympics 2024: Grae Morris flies into iQFOiL lead, Olivia Price in 49erFX medal race, 49ers 15th

The youngest member of our sailing team has roared into top spot in the race for a historic gold but its oldest and youngest female are out of the chase for a podium at the Paris Games.

Grae Morris competing in the big heat on his iQFOiL. Picture: Clive Mason/Getty Images

The youngest member of the Australian sailing team has roared back into the hunt for a medal but its oldest and youngest female are out of the race for a top three at the Paris Games.

Grae Morris, with another day of preliminary racing up his sleeve, is right in the mix for a historic gold in the new foiling windsurfer class after a win, two seconds and a ninth saw him fly to the top of the leaderboard in a sensational comeback from near last just a day ago.

Morris, who said he “had to stop acting like an idiot” after a bad result in his second race saw him incur maximum points, did just that with his latest results shoving the hulking young gun into the lead of the iQFOiL fleet ahead of the Medal decider on Friday.

The 20-year-old from Sydney’s eastern suburbs finished fourth at the world championships last year to establish himself as an outsider for a medal in Paris.

Grae Morris in action. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images)

But Morris admits he almost came undone during the crucial racing on Wednesday while trying to calculate where he needed to finish in the last race to guarantee himself a spot in the semis should racing be abandoned due to weather conditions on Thursday.

“Arthur (Brett, coach) said don’t push it, don’t overthink things, be accurate and I tried. I didn’t win it which made me made but a second was still a good result.

“Probably the less thinking I do the better. It seems to be a trend in my life,’’

Grae Morris has moved into the lead.

On a crucial day for two of the first sailors to take to the waters off Marseille in the long Olympic regatta, a fighting Olivia Price and Evie Haseldine posted a 10th and 12th to scrap into the Medal Race late Thursday AEST which guarantees them a top 10 finish at the Olympics.

But they are out of the running for the medals in the class being lead by Frenchwomen Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon.

The 49er skiff team of Jim Colley and Shaun Connor showed they have plenty of potential for the future with two third places at the Olympic regatta but failed to make the Medal Race with their 15th place overall.