Sacha Coenen, a Hero in US Motocross: Dominates Southwick but Suffers Shoulder Injury

Sacha Coenen masterful in AMA Motocross, but it’s a bittersweet triumph: he has in fact suffered a shoulder injury.

King of the 250 class in the USA, but with a broken right collarbone. That’s the astonishing feat by Sacha Coenen, the undisputed star of last weekend in Southwick, capped by a violent crash (with the aforementioned injury) at the end of Moto 2, and there could be global repercussions: the young Belgian is the current MX2 leader and next weekend brings the Foxhill round in Great Britain. There’s still no official confirmation from KTM on the extent of the injury or a possible procedure to fix the shoulder, while Lucas Coenen is unscathed—he too suffered a few heavy falls in a round where he showed strong pace, but without getting the results he hoped for.

He won Moto 1 with a 33-second margin over his pursuers and was going great in the final race too, when the KTM Belgian had a nasty crash. Fueled by adrenaline, he got back up, remounted, and charged to victory. But the pain came after: Sacha Coenen felt unwell, fought back tears, and clutched his right shoulder, fearing it had fractured in the heavy incident. “We are extremely proud of Sacha; it was an incredible result. He crashed and hurt his shoulder,” stated Ian Harrison, Team Manager of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, noting further checks scheduled for yesterday, with official news still pending. “But I’m astonished,” he continued. “He put in a superhero effort and ran a fantastic race.”

He had shone in the opening round, writing a piece of history for himself and for Belgium. This time in Southwick the story was different: he was very fast again, poised to be a protagonist once more, but setbacks came right at the start of Race 1. A slide off the line dropped him to 39th, from where he launched a stunning comeback up to fourth place, only to suffer another, harder fall near the end. Lucas Coenen didn’t suffer any consequences, but as a precaution (perhaps also influenced by what happened to his twin), and being the MXGP points leader, he skipped the second race. “He took a hard hit and decided not to race,” Harrison said afterwards. “I understand—he has a GP next weekend and he’s leading the championship.”

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