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2 students injured by athletics hammer in Iwate

7 Comments

Two high school students suffered injuries after they were hit by an athletics hammer on the sports ground of their school in Takizawa, Iwate Prefecture, on Wednesday.

According to police and school officials, the incident occurred at around 4:30 p.m. at Iwate Prefectural Morioka Agricultural High School, Fuji TV reported. The hammer, thrown by another athlete practicing, hit the two boys, aged 16 and 17, who were standing beside each other. A school official called 119 after seeing the two boys lying on the ground.

Both boys were taken to hospital. The 16-year-old was hit in the head and remained unconscious on Thursday, while the 17-year-old boy suffered a neck injury.

Police inspected the sports ground on Thursday to see if the school had been careless about letting students sit or stand within range of athletes practicing hammer or javelin throws.

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7 Comments
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Rule for any thrower. Always look before you throw!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

WTH is an athletics hammer?

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

WTH is an athletics hammer?

There is actually an interesting and little known history for this. Its a simulation of the top of a war hammer which was a metal ball with a hole in it. The hole was to put a stick/handle in so as to wield it as a weapon. Later it was used in competitions with the stick/handle still in to see who could throw it the furthest. The modern athletics hammer has no hole or stick, but has cords for holding and tossing.

People today are familiar with the knobbed ball weapon, or ball weapon with spikes, or other construction even, all called a mace, which is really just a war hammer plus. Today people are more familiar with the tool hammer and tend to envision a war hammer as a near sledge hammer kind of thing (as per silly RPG games), which would be about the worst weapon in the world. There have been some huge claw hammer type weapons without such a heavy head but the weakness is, as with any flattened hammer, that its very directional and easily strikes only a glancing blow if twisted slightly off target. With the ball type war hammer it doesn't matter what area of the head strikes, its always the same.

Today's athletics hammer is a metal ball without the center hole but two cords attached and grips on the cords. You grip both grips, spin within the confines of a circle and release it trying to throw it as far as possible. And if you mess up your spin and release people nearby can get hurt.

In some local competitions in "the old countries" the stick and ball war hammer are still used.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

1 ) Did the thrower let lose too soon or too late and the hammer went off too far right or left ?

2) Was there a safety net around the area the thrower was throwing from ?

3 ) Were the two boys in the hammer throwing landing area ?

4 ) Did the thrower look at the landing area to make sure it was clear before starting to throw ?

If we had answers to the above question, it would be easier to know what truly happened.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The TV report a few minutes ago showed a safety net supported by a steel frame surrounding the hammer throwing area, but the height of the net was only approximately 2 metres, and it sagged between the supporting posts.

Vanessa Carlisle: thank you for that interesting information!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Sad to hear that, wish the 2 boys full recovery, I am sure it was just a mistake .

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I see Thor walks among us! It should be easy to find the culprit! Just find out who was practicing hammer throws that time of the day! Someone had bound to see who threw it!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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