Gerd Kanter is over the moon after winning the men's discus final (© Getty Images)
On the 19 August this year Gerd Kanter cemented his reputation as the world’s best discus thrower by adding the Olympic title in Beijing to the World crown that he had achieved the previous summer in Osaka, Japan.
Kanter’s victory in Beijing in many respects completely buried the spectre of Virgilijus Alekna whose own illustrious career which was highlighted by the 2000 and 2004 Olympic and 2003 and 2005 World titles had until Osaka haunted the Estonian’s aspirations.
Kanter’s Lithuanian rival might still have a better personal best of 73.88m, the second longest throw of all-time as compared to 73.38m but it is the 2008 Olympic champion who can now boast three of the top six throws of all-time.
Steve Landells of Spikesmag.com recently interviewed Estonia’s Olympic champion to ask among other questions:
After such a successful 2008 season has it been hard to readjust to training?
“I don’t feel any lack of motivation. I feel motivated and fired up about next year, going for the World record and defending my World Championship title. It starts to take about ten days (of training) to feel good.”
Have you lost much fitness?
“Probably a little bit because I took 5 weeks (rest) but so far I’ve done really easy training, so I’m still not so sure. I’ve also lost 5kg. When you are not training you don’t need so much food. I’ve been eating twice a day rather than three times a day.”
Are you likely to make many adjustments to your training?
“At the end of the season I sat down with my coach (Vesteinn Hafsteinsson) and we thought it is time to make some changes because I have been training the same for the last 5-6 years. If you keep doing things the same way you don’t gain so much from training because your body adapts to it and you really need to change some things to make your body feel different. You need to improve in some things to get better. So, we are going to change some things, and, of course, the main thing is to try to stay healthy.”
“I’m at a critical age - coming close to 30 - my body is getting older and you really need to look after it, so as not to get hurt. There is also the possibility of going lighter (in training) because I’ve been doing so much volume in the past and to focus more on technical things. You can get better results from training lighter. It is more effective.”
When do you plan to start your competitive season?
“Probably at the end of April in the US. Of course, we will compete in the middle of March (in the European Cup Winter Throwing), but that’s not so important. It depends on how my team-mates are going and whether they are interested to go. It would be good to go and get a high place for the team. Personally, my goals are to train in the US and (compete) maybe in early May where I would like to go and break the World record.”
The World record is 74.08m (set by German Jurgen Schult in 1986), is it achievable?
“Yes, because the last two or three years we have been training hard and I’ve been close – I’ve been over 73m (73.38m) it is only 70cms from the record, which is only one per cent.”
“To break that record, of course, you need everything to succeed. You need good form, good conditions and you need a good atmosphere in the competition. Everything needs to come together but at a certain time, it’s really possible. If you think of 72m, I’ve been throwing the last two years, it is only 2m (short of the World record) and I haven’t really had a good competition, so it is really possible. If you really believe in it – it will happen. I really believed one day I would be Olympic champion and it happened.”
Estonia regularly churns out great discus throwers. Why is that the case?
“If you look at our nation and our background Estonians are big and strong guys. We always have some power. We’ve always had some good javelin throwers, good shot putters, good discus throwers and good hammer throwers. It is also a very technical event, you don’t need to be (aged) 20 to succeed. You can be 25 to succeed, so if you work hard and be patient one day it will really pay off.”
To find out more about Gerd Kanter read the rest of the interview on Spikesmag.com by clicking here
Steve Landells – Spikesmag.com – for the IAAF
