Windsurfer (Lechner Division II), Open

Windsurfing had been a men-only event at the 1984 Olympics, although women contested a demonstration version. The 1984 board chosen was the windglider, but it was never used again at the Olympics. In 1988 windsurfing was titularly contested as a mixed event, but no women competed. Women would compete for the first time in windsurfing as a medal sport at the 1992 Olympics. The 1988 event was contested on Lechner Division II boards, which were a round-bottomed board with a 6.5 metre sail.

New Zealand’s Bruce Kendall had won the bronze medal in men’s windsurfing at the 1984 Olympics. In Busan he won two races and was steady throughout, and after six races, did not need to start the final race to win the gold medal. He did anyway, placing ninth, and mounted the podium’s top step. The worst day for the sailors was race five, with winds up to 25 knots and large waves, and only 19 of the 43 sailors finished. The 1988 bronze medalist, American Mike Gebhardt would improve to a silver medal at Barcelona in 1992.

The silver medal went to Jan Boersma of the Netherlands Antilles. In 2008 Churandy Martina of the same nation initially finished second in the men’s athletics 200 metres, but he was then disqualified for running out of his lane. This left Boersma’s silver in this event as the only Olympic medal ever won by the Netherlands Antilles, and will remain so, as it was dissolved as a separate entity by the Netherlands in October 2010, and absorbed into that country.