A fortnight after Robert Harting threw for the very last time, Gerd Kanter will also call time on his illustrious career at home in Tallinn on Thursday 13 September when he will compete in a special team event at the Kadriorg Stadium.
Now 39, Kanter won the world discus title in 2007 before repeating the following season at the Beijing Olympics. While he didn’t win a European title, Kanter won four silver and bronze medals between 2006-16 and capped his career in the major events with a fifth-place finish in a record-equalling seventh appearance at the European Championships in Berlin, finishing one place ahead of Harting.
Kanter is the third longest thrower in history with a lifetime best of 73.38m set in 2006 - a mark that hasn’t been surpassed since and one of 14 competitions in excess of the 70 metre-line. Only Jurgen Schult (74.08m) and Kanter’s long-time rival Virgilijus Alekna (73.88m) have gone further historically.
To mark his retirement, Kanter will take centre stage in a World Team Throwing event in Tallinn, forming one half of the Estonian team alongside Rio 2016 Olympic fourth-placer Martin Kupper.
They will face opposition from Germany (Daniel Jasinski, Martin Wierig), Poland (Piotr Malachowski, Robert Urbanek), Sweden (Daniel Stahl, Simon Pettersson), Team Europe (Lithuania’s Andrius Gudzius and Italy’s Hanner Kirchler) and a World Team (Jamaica’s Fedrick Dacres and Norway’s Ola Stunes Isene).
Each thrower will have four throws and the team with the longest combined distance will win the competition. The competition will be streamed on Estonian Television from 5.00pm local time (CET+1) on Thursday.
Prior to Kanter’s farewell competition, there will be a special ‘Gerd Kanter Legacy’ conference held at the Tallinn Film Museum at 5.00pm on 12 September. The conference will be conducted entirely in English and all of the speakers invited to participate have been influential in shaping Kanter’s long and distinguished career (see ‘related documents’ for more information on the conference programme). Another special guest appearing at the conference is the recently retired Robert Harting.
Athletics enthusiasts, media representatives, coaches, sportspeople and young athletes will find the conference particularly insightful and are invited to attend. The conference will be streamed online by Estonian Broadcast Television and viewers can watch the conference on a non-geoblocked stream from 5.00pm local time tomorrow.