Eric Favors

Eric, whose grandmother comes from Ballina (Co Mayo), grew up in New York (Rockland), and he was coached in high school by Ireland’s Sydney Olympic hammer thrower Paddy McGrath. He broke the 20 metre mark (20:07), and Paul Quirke’s 30-year-old Irish record, for the first time in 2022 and came very close to breaking 21m in the US in April and has since taken it out to 20:93m. He has qualified for the last two World Championships, and missed making the final at this year’s Europeans (14th) by just 11cm. He has a degree in criminal law and a Masters in education and IT from the University of South Carolina, but currently works part-time in a school in Pennsylvania so that he can train with Dane Miller whose group contains some of the world’s top throwers.