Tom Ashley won New Zealand's seventh yachting gold, 52 years after Peter Mander and Jack Cropp won the first, when he pipped Frenchman Julien Bontemps by a solitary point on Fushan Bay yesterday.
The 24-year-old Aucklander broke a gold medal drought of 16 years, stretching back to Barbara Kendall's win in Barcelona, as he did his best to hold back tears on the dais.
After admitting he had lived "like a monk" in pursuit of his first gold, Ashley said he had some serious thinking to do about whether he carried on and defended his title near London in four years' time.
"I don't know. For the moment this has gone as well as it could have gone. Never say never and I don't know if I'll be carrying on. But I do love what I do and it's always hard to stay away," Ashley said.
"I need to give that some thought as well. I'd really like to go to university at some stage. My nature is to be a little bit all or nothing with the thing I do so if I did that, I'd probably want to give it 100 percent as well."
No sailing airhead, Ashley is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French and says his first academic choice would be to study law.
But after he takes a well-earned holiday, reunites with his Brazilian fiancee Mariana -- also a keen sailor -- and marries her near Rio de Janeiro in January, he might have a change of heart.
He's been smitten by the sport since his parents John and Julie bought him a sailboard for his 15th birthday and he became inspired by Kendall and Aaron McIntosh's boardsailing bronzes in Sydney in 2000.
"I wouldn't go windsurfing for fun but I absolutely love it, I love training, all the elements that go into preparing for a campaign.
"It's a really fantastic sport in that it combines a lot of the elements of sailing with a really strong physical element, it's really cool."
Kendall was one of the first to greet Ashley off the water yesterday after her own campaign stalled in the light Qingdao air and she finished sixth in pursuit of a fourth Olympic medal.
After Barcelona she won silver in Atlanta and bronze in Sydney, before a fifth in Athens in 2004.
She hailed Ashley's single-mindedness and commitment, but said he would find it tough to defend his title, purely because the competition was so tight. Just eight points separated the top-four men here, but Ashley's consistency and a brilliant tactical race yesterday won him the spoils.
"I don't know if he'll continue or not. It's pretty hard to maintain that level of training year after year so he'll probably have a break and then decide what he'll do afterwards," Kendall said.
"It's pretty hard to come back and win another medal after you've won a gold, believe me.
"It's a wonderful game and windsurfing is just an awesome sport. If he has that passion to still windsurf he'll continue."
Meantime, the party was set to start for Ashley as he flies to Beijing on Saturday for a hero's welcome from the New Zealand Games team.
His was the only New Zealand medal in Qingdao after Star pair Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams finished 13th, fifth and 11th yesterday to leave them ninth heading into today's medal race.
