Mandy Mulder and Coen de Koning showed a strong performance in Miami. Even more so because this was their comeback event after Coen broke his collar bone a few months ago. He was operated in September. They used a plate with 7 screws to transfer 3 pieces of collarbone into one. He was far from being able to sail at that time.
On his Facebook page he mentioned he was blessed with good people: “Blessed with good people helping me recover which means I will be back strong.” And that’s what he and Mandy did.
They were leading the Nacra17 fleet in Miami all week. The lost it for one day but fought back in the medal race. They finished third while their main rivals Australia and Switzerland ended seventh and ninth.
Mandy Mulder after the medal race in Miami: “The medal was very exciting. There was hardly any wind, and lots of pressure differences on the race course. We had a good start and were leading at the first mark. But we didn’t want to put everything at stake and sailed conservatively. We lost two places to teams who took more risk but we also saw the Australians having a bad start. The third place was just enough to secure the gold. After a few months not being able to sail together we thought we might had fallen behind the rest of the fleet, but in light weather conditions we’re still good and on track for Rio!”
Photo Richard Langdon / Ocean Images
