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Amanda Butterfield reportingThousands of sports fans witnessed a horrible accident this weekend in Provo at the state's High School Track and Field Championships: A news photographer was hit by a javelin.
The javelins high school boys use to compete are 8 feet long. A student athlete threw one and hit a photographer right below the knee. "Simply put, a photographer was impaled with a javelin," explained Dave Wilkey, executive director of the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA).
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Ryan McGeeney, a photographer shooting for the Standard-Examiner, took a picture himself with the javelin stuck through his leg. It happened in Provo at the state track and field meet where about 2,000 students were competing, and over 8,000 fans were watching.
"There was a hush over the crowd. Everyone saw what was going on, and it did delay the meet for over an hour," Wilkey said.
He says McGeeney was shooting photos of the discus competition and walked out of the safe zone. "He wasn't thinking, literally, and walked across those sector lines," Wilkey said.
Utah is one of only 13 states where high school students compete in the javelin, and Wilkey says, looking back, this is probably the most major injury from the sport.
Eyewitness News took a look back at the stories we've done over the years with javelins and found an interesting case from two years ago. Then-15-year-old Taylor Bremner from Panguitch High School ran to get a javelin he had just thrown, tripped and it went into his eye and four inches into his skull.
"I thought my life was over," Bremner told us. "All I can remember is the grinding noise when I was pulling it out."
Bremner didn't suffer any major damage from the accident, and neither did McGeeney. The javelin simply went right through McGreeney's skin and was removed with no problem. We talked to his managing editor today, and McGeeney is already back to work.
Meanwhile, UHSAA is discussing changing protocol with media. "We've contemplated moving all media outside the track area, but that impinges on the media to do their job," Wilkey said.
But it would ensure a javelin through a photographer's knee wouldn't happen again.
Wilkey says the organization may designate a safe area on the field that all photographers would have to stay in to shot all the events. However, nothing has been decided as of yet.
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com
