A near-perfect landing

From Dwight Perry, The Seattle Times: Sideline Chatter —

A British gymnast with the presence to add an impromptu somersault to his routine to ensure a feet-first landing survived a 33-foot fall from a fourth-floor hotel window in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with just a broken ankle.

“Probably my gymnastic knowledge and experience saved me,” Steven Jehu, 17, in town for the upcoming European championships, told the Slovenske Novice newspaper. “There was a big window that could be opened. I leaned out over a metal bar, but the bar suddenly broke. I couldn’t do anything. I fell.

“I got away with it all right, although the European championships for me ended before they even began.”

Adding insult to injury, the French judge docked him one-tenth of a point for the slight wobble on his landing.