'I know I can compete with the top dudes in the world' - Eric Favors on big shot put ambitions

The New York native has been making an impression in the Irish vest.

Sat, 18 Feb, 2023 - 07:42

Cathal Dennehy

When it comes to the shot put, size matters, the physics underpinning the event meaning that the greater the mass behind that 7.26kg metal ball, the easier it is to send it soaring beyond 20 metres.

Until last year, just one Irishman in history had done that, Paul Quirke, but it’s a distance Eric Favors has started to make routine. The 26-year-old broke the Irish record several times last year, throwing 20.50m outdoors, and he’s started this season in similar fashion, breaking his own Irish indoor record with 20.16m.

Shot putters are the strongmen of the athletics circuit, man-mountains who dwarf their peers. In the gym, Favors – who is 5ft 11in and weighs 130kg – typically benches 227kg, squats 300kg and cleans 195kg. It’s not just about strength, but also speed, explosive power, which need to be married with a technical puzzle of specific body positions to launch the optimal throw. Then there’s the eating, which is much less fun than it sounds.

“I don’t have a big appetite, so I have to force myself to have three huge meals and then have snacks, protein shakes, creatine, just to maintain my weight,” says Favors. “It is a struggle.”

More is better, but only up to a point. Two years ago, Favors piled on the pounds in his final year of college, climbing to 140kg, but the swift transformation led to injuries. As he sat in Hayward Field, Oregon, unable to compete at the 2021 NCAA Championships, he resolved he’d get back there a year later for the World Championships.

A move to work with coach Dane Miller at Garage Strength, a high-performance centre in Reading, Pennsylvania, paid dividends. A dozen top-level throwers are based there, including Cuba’s Yaime Perez, the 2019 world discus champion. Favors got a part-time job in IT with the local school district and gave shot putting a proper go, and it was worth it. He was a late addition to the Irish team for last year’s World Championships after an invite from World Athletics.

He wasn’t at his best in Oregon, throwing 19.76m, but he broke the Irish record at his next two competitions and finished his season at the Europeans in Munich, again donning a garment he wouldn’t have envisaged in childhood: the Irish vest.

Favors grew up in Rockland County, outside New York City, and his link to Ireland is his grandmother, Margaret Kerr, a native of Ballina in Mayo who lived in New York for more than 50 years. In high school, Favors followed his older brother, Darius, in taking up the shot put, which he initially used as a means of building strength for American football. He was a bright prospect in the latter sport and had many scholarship offers, but not from colleges he wanted. That, coupled with his concerns around concussion, led him to focus on the shot put as he enrolled at the University of South Carolina.

His decision to represent Ireland came through Paddy McGrath, who competed for Ireland at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and who coached him in high school. Favors is currently 23rd on the rankings ahead of next month’s European Indoors in Istanbul; a strong performance at the national indoor championships in Abbotstown today could move him into the top-18 that’s required.

It’s also a chance to win another national title in the colours of Raheny Shamrock. Favors feels he is “light years” ahead of where he was last year, which bodes well for the outdoor season. “I know I can compete with the top dudes in the world,” he says. “It’s just going to take some time.”