A real stickler on the job

PROVO, Utah - A newspaper photographer got a little too close to the action at the state high school track championships - and was speared through the leg by a javelin.

Ryan McGeeney, of the Standard-Examiner, was spared serious injury Saturday, and even managed to snap a photo of his speared leg while others tended to him.

McGeeney, 33, an ex-Marine who spent 6 months in Afghanistan, was taking pictures of the discus event and apparently wandered into an off-limits area set aside for the javelin.

Striking just below the knee, the javelin tip went through the skin and emerged on the other side of his leg.

"It wasn't real painful . . . I was very lucky in that it didn't hit any blood vessels, nerves, ligaments or tendons," McGeeney said.

Much of the javelin was cut off at the scene. He received 13 stitches. *