If a Utah high school javelin thrower had a little more loft on his state tournament winning toss, this story would not be so amusing. Luckily, though, the thrwo by Provo High's Anthony Miles throw caught newspaper photographer Ryan McGeeney just below the knee causing far less damage than if it had struck him in, say, the torso. McGeeney, an ex-U.S. Marine, works as an intern for the Ogden Standard-Examiner.

The description of the injury is a pip. The javelin pierced McGeeney's leg and an EMT cut off most of the javelin, sort of like they cut of the end of an arrow in an old cowboy movie, but leaving about a foot-and-half in the guy's leg.

As far as McGeeney's condition is concerned, apparently the javelin didn't hit any major blood vessels, ligaments or tendons and caught all skin and a little meat (I realize that's probably not standard medical terminology), so he's apparently going to be fine. A veteran of a tour-of-duty in Afghanistan, McGeeney did what every news photographer I'ver ever known would do -- he pulled out a camera and took a picture of the javelin in his leg. Warning, we have a link to the photo but remember, this is a javelin sticking through a leg. With that in mind, here it is.

This is the best quote from McGeeney on taking a photo of his own impalement: "If I didn't, it would probably be my editor's first question when I got back."

And that sounds like every editor I've ever known, too. More here.