It has been quite a week for Estonian discus thrower Gerd Kanter.
On Saturday in Turi, he produced a season’s best of 66.26m to move to sixth in this year’s European Athletics rankings, he then improved upon that mark four days later with 66.28m in Parnu.
At 35, Kanter remains one of the great stars of the event and as this summer has shown - let alone this week - his competitive edge remains as sharp as ever.
Kanter’s greatest moment came in Beijing in 2008 when he won the Olympic title with 66.82m and since then the success has gone on.
He has won another Olympic bronze, in London, three more world championship medals (a silver and two bronzes to go with his gold from Osaka and silver from Helsinki) and now has three silvers from the European Athletics Championships.
His second place in Zurich in August added to the same medal he won in Gothenburg in 2006 and Helsinki in 2012.
But the autumn is proving a good time for him as he won the discus at the IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakech just under a fortnight ago with 64.46m and now has taken his distance even further in competitions at home.
At a small meeting in Turi, Kanter’s 66.26m beat fellow Estonian Martin Kupper with 64.26m before he travelled to Parnu to throw even further.
In Zurich, as Kanter had a best of 64.75m as Germany’s Robert Harting retained his title with 66.07m, Piotr Malachowski, of Poland, was fourth with 63.54m.
Malachowski went on to win the Diamond Race and this week he has offered that trophy to be auctioned in support of Jacek Gaworski, a Polish fencer who is battling with multiple sclerosis and cancer and is aiming to be at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.