A freak accident saw long jumper Salim Sdiri speared by a javelin at the 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 later that night.

That has got to hurt. I am not sure if Salim Sdiri is very unlucky or very lucky, unlucky to be hit or lucky not to be injured seriously.

http://www.sportinglife.com/others/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=others/07/07/14/ATHLETICS_Javelin.html

Back around the 80s they changed the centre of gravity of the javelin, as some throwers were getting over 90m and there was too much danger of them hitting other athletes.

I always find it funny when Javelin throwers spear themselves.