As a hammer thrower and shot-putter, Safiya Ingram, a track and field student-athlete from the university of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, spends a lot of time slinging big heavy things through the air. She knows when she's launched a great throw -- and she knows when she hasn't. She also knows it's not right to take advantage of someone else's mistake.

At the 2000 southeastern conference outdoor track and field championships, meet officials measured Ingram’s hammer throw mark at 64 meters, which would have been an automatic qualifying mark to the NCAA championships, as well as an Alabama and sec record.

Ingram knew that wasn't right. She told officials, who remeasured the throw and discovered that the distance was really 54 meters. Pointing that out cost Ingram the title, the record and the qualifying mark. Ingram took second place, but she didn't mind.

"It was just natural," she said of her almost instant instinct to correct the mark. "It was the right thing to do. i wouldn't want to accept a throw that wasn't really mine. No matter what place you get at the meet, you have to go home with yourself."

By Kay Hawes, The NCAA News January 29, 2001