Salim Sdiri (born 26 October 1978) is a French

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...

er of

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n descent. His personal best is 8.42 metres, achieved in June 2009 at

Pierre-Bénite Pierre-Bénite (; frp, Piérra-Benête) is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. Geography Pierre-Bénite, a suburb around 6 kilometers (3.73 miles) south of Lyon, extends over 440 hectares (1087 ...

, which is the current French national record. He is also the French national record holder for indoor long jump with an 8.27 m jump in 2006. He has jumped eight meters or more every season since 2002 and has a bronze medallion from the 2007 European Indoor Athletics Championships.

Career

Rome javelin accident

On Friday 13 July 2007, during the

IAAF Golden League The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of outdoor track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Athletes who won specific events at all of the series meetings were awarded a jackpot prize, ...

at Rome's Olimpico Stadium, Sdiri was hit in the

scapula The scapula (plural scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on eith ...

by a stray javelin thrown by the Finnish athlete

Tero Pitkämäki Tero Kristian Pitkämäki (born 19 December 1982) is a Finnish retired track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He is a World Champion, having won gold in 2007. His personal best throw of 91.53 m, set in 2005, ranks him elev ...

. The javelin thrower slipped and threw the javelin towards the area where the jumpers were warming up. Sdiri was rushed to a local hospital in Rome with non life-threatening injuries. The doctors believed, at the time, that the javelin had missed any vital organs by 4 centimetres. However, two days later, Sdiri was rushed back to the ER as the prognosis was incorrect. The javelin had actually torn a hole in his liver and torn and punctured the right kidney slightly. Sdiri responded to the many interviewers by saying:

The javelin touched the right kidney and there is a slight tear at the top of the kidney....the liver was also touched leaving a hole in it. The javelin penetrated over ten centimetres and not four as we initially thought.

Return to competition

After months of rehabilitation and questioning, he decided to prepare himself to return to competition for the Beijing Olympics in early 2008. However, he did not qualify. On 12 June 2009, Sdiri beat the former French record holder for long jump, Kader Klouchi (8.30 m in 1998) with an 8.43 m jump. Sdiri was selected to compete in the World Championships in Berlin in August 2009. He finished 6th, with an 8.07 m jump. On 27 February 2012, in Paris-Bercy, Sdiri became the French champion in the indoor long jump by setting the best performance of the year worldwide with a jump of 8.24 m, just missing his French record by 3 centimetres. On 12 March 2012, he qualified for the finals in the long jump at the World Indoor Championships with a 7.94 m jump. He came second with an 8.01 m jump versus the 8.17 m jump of Fabrice Lapierre.

Achievements

* Mediterranean Games ** Sdiri holds the record for the games with an 8.29 m jump in 2009. He is also the recipient of the trophy awarded to athletes that are selected for competition over 20 times internationally by the International Sports Federation in 2010.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sdiri, Salim 1978 births Living people French male long jumpers French sportspeople of Tunisian descent Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of France Mediterranean Games gold medalists for France Athletes (track and field) at the 2005 Mediterranean Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2009 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics