A 75-year-old athletics official, identified as Dieter Strack by the local athletics association for Duesseldorf and Neuss, died yesterday after being speared through the throat by a javelin at an athletics meet in Duesseldorf on Sunday.

The elderly official at the city’s Wilhelm Unger Games for young athletes is reported to have gone to measure a javelin throw, but was hit by the object as it landed, according to local media reports.