Long Jumper Survives Javelin Hit

Post by **Edi** » 2007-07-14 08:00am

A freak accident which saw French long jumper Salim Sdiri speared by a javelin overshadowed the IAAF Golden League meeting in Rome on Friday.

Salim was crouching in the warm-up area when a wild throw from Finland's Tero Pitkamaki hit him in the upper body.

He was rushed to hospital but his injury was not serious and he returned to his hotel room early on Saturday.

<snip>

Sdiri, who is now a major doubt for the World Championships which start on 25 August in Osaka, Japan, admitted that he had been ill at ease because the men's javelin and long jump events were taking place at the same time.

"I had my worries. We had begun our competition and the javelin throwers were warming up," he said.

"The javelins were falling not too far from our area and I saw one landing near my foot. I couldn't really see it arriving as my back was to it."

<snip>

This one was big news here, since the javelin thrower was Tero Pitkämäki, a Finn. Apparently the organizers fucked up and placed the long jump area right next to the javelin area at roughly the 80 meter mark, which is the most dangerous area since the long throws come to that range and are most likely to go off course compared to short ones. To make matters worse, the long jumpers were placed facing away from the javelin course, so they could not see any incoming ones and no lookouts were posted. It's a good thing Sdiri didn't get killed.

Pulp Hero · Post by **Pulp Hero** » 2007-07-14 09:09am

Damn, I thought this stort was going to be about a FGM-148 Javelin.

chitoryu12 · Post by **chitoryu12** » 2007-07-14 06:04pm

Pulp Hero wrote:Damn, I thought this stort was going to be about a FGM-148 Javelin.

It would be funny if an errant missile landed in the warmup area, but that's just me.

At least now Salim knows what it's like to be facing the Roman legion, a very rare experience in these modern times.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2007-07-14 06:21pm

Jesus fucking Christ. What a screw up by the planners. How hard is it to figure out that you don't place people in areas where potentially deadly projectiles are going to be falling?

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2007-07-14 06:49pm

So, the long jump warm-up area could double as the javelin catching area. Good job, guys!

Slightly more seriously, is it possible that the thrower and, um, catcher have had a beef before now? I'm reminded of Tonya Harding and her boyfriend's work with the tire iron against Nancy Kerrigan a few years back. I admit that it would have been pretty tough to intentionally hit a guy at 80m with a javelin, but you never know....

Singular Intellect · Post by **Singular Intellect** » 2007-07-14 07:51pm

Imperial Overlord wrote:Jesus fucking Christ. What a screw up by the planners. How hard is it to figure out that you don't place people in areas where potentially deadly projectiles are going to be falling?

Perhaps this accident will spearhead new safety rules...

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2007-07-14 08:30pm

This reminds me of a Kids in the Hall skit: All of America's Olympic teams are killed in various horrible accidents, until only their pole-vaulter is left, with all of America's hopes and dreams on his shoulders. As he's running, he's hit in the head by a record-setting shotput by a Swede.

SpacedTeddyBear · Post by **SpacedTeddyBear** » 2007-07-14 08:36pm

Holy crap. I would think that such screw ups would be left at the highschool level. The closest shave I had was when I was getting ready to do my longjump when a stray discus skipped a few feet from the runway.

This reminds me of the joke, where the world's fastest man threw a javelin into his own back.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2007-07-14 10:11pm

from what I've heard in the finish TV news the chance of it being if it being intentional is pretty much nil, the javelin thrower seemed genuenly relived in the intervew there of the fact that no serious injury had happen.

Post by **Edi** » 2007-07-15 02:57am

SCrawl, no, zero chance of it being intentional, they did not even know each other. Pitkämäki was pretty much in pieces after the accident and felt like shit. He was really relieved that Sdiri was okay.

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2007-07-15 07:40am

Edi wrote:SCrawl, no, zero chance of it being intentional, they did not even know each other. Pitkämäki was pretty much in pieces after the accident and felt like shit. He was really relieved that Sdiri was okay.

Oh, my suggestion was pretty much tongue-in-cheek. I suppose I can afford to be flippant about the whole situation, because I'm neither French nor Finnish, and I don't follow track and field very closely. I guess that makes my post little more than useless spam, so I'm sorry if anyone's time was wasted in the effort to determine Sdiri's motivations.

tim31 · Post by **tim31** » 2007-07-15 01:13pm

It's not the first time this has happened. About ten or fifteen years ago, don't know which sporting tournament, but someone got unexpectedly speared. May have been an official. When they tried to get the speared person into the helicopter, they had to procure a saw to cut down the javelin.

Thag · Post by **Thag** » 2007-07-15 01:20pm

Bob & Tom had something similar in their great moments in olympic history skits, but they used skeet shooting and the pole vault.

chitoryu12 · Post by **chitoryu12** » 2007-07-16 02:52am

Bubble Boy wrote:
Imperial Overlord wrote:Jesus fucking Christ. What a screw up by the planners. How hard is it to figure out that you don't place people in areas where potentially deadly projectiles are going to be falling?
Perhaps this accident will spearhead new safety rules...

Spearhead? Nice thread for that word.

Master Arachnos · Post by **Master Arachnos** » 2007-07-16 10:08am

I'm sure it was on the news yesterday that he'd been readmitted to hospital. Was'nt paying much attention but I'm sure it said there'd been complications

Singular Intellect · Post by **Singular Intellect** » 2007-07-16 04:35pm

chitoryu12 wrote:
Bubble Boy wrote:
Imperial Overlord wrote:Jesus fucking Christ. What a screw up by the planners. How hard is it to figure out that you don't place people in areas where potentially deadly projectiles are going to be falling?
Perhaps this accident will spearhead new safety rules...
Spearhead? Nice thread for that word.

I was waiting for someone to catch that...

Post by **Edi** » 2007-07-16 04:48pm

Yeah, he got readmitted and it turns out the spearpoint clipped his kidney and caused a surface slash on his liver. He'll recover but it'll take longer.

chitoryu12 · Post by **chitoryu12** » 2007-07-16 06:57pm

Bubble Boy wrote:
chitoryu12 wrote:
Bubble Boy wrote: Perhaps this accident will spearhead new safety rules...
Spearhead? Nice thread for that word.
I was waiting for someone to catch that...

Talk about insensitive.

Argosh · Post by **Argosh** » 2007-07-17 08:47am

tim31 wrote:It's not the first time this has happened. About ten or fifteen years ago, don't know which sporting tournament, but someone got unexpectedly speared. May have been an official. When they tried to get the speared person into the helicopter, they had to procure a saw to cut down the javelin.

I think it was one of the officials who measure the distance. He got hit with the javelin thru his foot. At least I remember something like that.