Career
He competed at the 2004 Olympics, but did not reach the final. The season 2005 was his breakthrough year as he won silver medals at the World Championships and World Athletics Final, took home a victory in the European Cup and won the World University Games. He also threw more than 70 metres for the first time.
On September 4, 2006, in Helsingborg, Sweden, Kanter threw more than 70 metres in four different rounds (69.46 – 72.30 – 70.43 – 73.38 – 70.51 – 65.88). The best mark of 73.38 m was an Estonian record and the third best in history – only Jürgen Schult (74.08 m, 1986) and Virgilijus Alekna (73.88 m, 2000) have thrown further.
Kanter was the silver medalist at the 2006 European Athletics Championships, finishing behind Virgilijus Alekna, and became the world champion in the discus at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he took Olympicgold medal with a throw of 68.82 meters, one meter ahead of second-place finisher Piotr Malachowski of Poland.
In March 2009 he won the European Cup Winter Throwing event in Los Realejos, Tenerife, Spain with 69.70 m. On 22 March 2009, he set a world indoor best of 69.51 m in Växjö, Sweden. At the 2009 World Championships in Athletics he returned to defend his world title. He had a best throw of 66.88 m, which was enough for the World bronze medal. He took victory in the Wexiö Indoor Throwing competition in 2010, although his winning throw was some way behind his indoor record set the previous year. Still, he started strongly outdoors, having a long early-season throw of 71.45 m in California – the eleventh best throw ever at that point.
He finished just outside of the medals at the 2010 European Athletics Championships, coming fourth, but managed to win the silver medal at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics behind Robert Harting. He ended that year with a season's best throw of 67.99 m at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial.
Read more about this topic: Gerd Kanter
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