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ROME - French long jumper Salim Sdiri was taken to hospital after being hit by a javelin during the Golden League meeting in Rome today.
The incident occurred midway through the evening when Finnish thrower Tero Pitkamaki slipped at the end of his run-up, hurling the javelin out to the left of the landing area and spearing Sdiri in his right side as he crouched in the long jump warm-up section.
A medical crew and ambulance were quickly at the scene, but a stadium announcer said Sdiri was not seriously injured despite being impaled.
"He was hit on the right. He is conscious, but we don't yet know how deep it went..." the medical officer for the Italian Athletic Federation, Giuseppe Fischetto, said immediately after the incident.
"We will only know after we've carried out further tests in hospital".
A shocked-looking Pitkamaki held his head in his hands after the incident but took his next throw in the javelin competition.
In January, Olympic decathlon champion Roman Sebrle was impaled by a javelin in a training accident.
The Czech world record holder was hit in the right shoulder while crossing the field at his training camp in South Africa and needed 11 stitches in the wound.
- REUTERS
