Slovenian discus thrower Kristjan Čeh has won gold at the European Athletics Championships in Rome in what is his fourth medal at a major competition.

Čeh's best throw was 68.08 metres, which was good enough for an improvement on his silver medal at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich.

He also has gold from the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, US and silver from the 2023 worlds in Budapest.

The 25-year-old Slovenian finished ahead of Lukas Weisshaidinger of Austria (67.70 m) and the defending European and world champion and world record holder Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania (67.48 m).

"That sounds very good, really very good," Čeh said about his feat on 7 June, adding: "I had a good performance, and I was also ahead of Mykolas Alekna all the time."

"I had expected Alekna to have better throws. I was the best today. Two years ago I was second at the European championships with a better throw than today, but Alekna was stronger back then," he added.

What Čeh is missing is an Olympic medal. "I don't like to make predictions, but it will certainly be a good competition in Paris," he said, adding that the gold medal in Rome gave him extra motivation and confidence.

"The Olympics will be held in two months. I have a lot of momentum for practice ... after winning this gold. I will be able to prepare well for Paris and throw the discus far there, too," Čeh said.

Slovenia won two medals at the previous European Athletics Championships in Munich in 2022. Čeh won silver and Tina Šutej bronze in the pole vault.

Before that, Slovenia had won eight European championship medals, two of which gold. Britta Bilač bagged one in high jump in Helsinki in 1994 and Jolanda Čeplak won the European title in the 800 metres in Munich in 2002.