Richard Thomas Buck (born 14 November 1986 in Grimsby, Lincolnshire) is a former British sprinter who specialised in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

event. He is from York, and trains in Loughborough. Buck's current club is City of York A.C. (formerly Nestlé York A.C). Previously, he had an 18-month spell at Scarborough A.C. He has been trained by his grandfather, Geoff Barraclough, and is now coached by Nick Dakin.

Career

After competing in basketball and

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

Lady Lumley's School Lady Lumley's School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Pickering, North Yorkshire, England. It was founded in Thornton-le-Dale in 1670. It was endowed by deed of Frances, Richard Lumley, 1st Viscount Lumley, Viscoun ...

Pickering Pickering may refer to: Places Antarctica * Pickering Nunataks, Alexander Island Australia * Pickering, South Australia, the original name (1872–1940) of the town of Wool Bay * Pickering Brook, Western Australia, Australia Canada * Pic ...

, Buck took up sprinting at the age of 15. He quickly took to the sport, and was the fastest 400 m sprinter in his age group after two years. This form brought him to the attention of the national selectors, and he was selected to compete as England's only 400 m representative at the

2004 Commonwealth Youth Games The 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games, officially known as the II Commonwealth Youth Games, and commonly known as Bendigo 2004, a regional sporting event that was held from 30 November to 3 December 2004 in Bendigo, Australia. They were the second Co ...

, in

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...

, Australia, where he won a bronze medal. He came to national attention during the 2007 season, being selected to represent Great Britain at both the

World Student Games In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

and as part of the relay squad at the

2007 World Athletics Championships The 11th World Championships in Athletics, () under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAF's 212 member federat ...

in Osaka. His 2008 indoor season started well, with a win at the Norwich Union international match in Glasgow the 400 m, helping to secure a win for Great Britain. He also won the 400 m event at the World Indoor trials and National Championships in Sheffield and competed in the semi-finals of the 2008 World Indoor Championships. In 2010, Buck made the semi-finals of the World Indoor Championships in Doha and won a bronze medal with the GB 4×400 m team. He was also a part of the silver medal-winning team at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona. An ongoing Achilles tendon injury ruled Buck out of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Buck had arguably his most successful year in 2011 where he took the bronze medal at the European indoor championships along with silver in the 4×400 m. Buck's outdoor season also opened well; Buck clocked a personal best time of 45.99 seconds in his first race. Buck was selected in the World Championship 4×400 m squad and travelled with the team but did not race. Buck was dropped from funding at the end of a 2011 season along with other big name athletes such as Kelly Sotherton. Seeking ways to fund his Olympic ambitions, Buck works part-time at a supermarket whilst juggling a heavy training schedule. Following an appearance on the ITV Yorkshire news programme ''

Calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

'', where he discussed his loss of funding, an anonymous donor sent Buck a cheque for £10,000. Buck clocked a lifetime best of 45.88 (indoors) in the national race at the Aviva Birmingham Grand Prix.

Olympics

Buck was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 4 × 400 metres relay event but a virus interrupted his training and he never competed in Beijing with the squad. However, Buck was spurred on by the disappointment and came back highly motivated. At the beginning of the 2009 season, Buck finished a close second behind Tyler Christopher at the Aviva International in Birmingham. He set a new indoor best of 46.22 s, which was the fourth-fastest European time at that point in the season.Turnbull, Simon (1 March 2009)
Fast Buck can earn indoor glory with grandad as coach
'' The Independent''. Retrieved on 13 March 2009. This boded well for the

2009 European Indoor Championships The 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held in Turin, Italy, from Friday, 6 March to Sunday, 8 March 2009. The championships took place at the Oval Lingotto indoor arena

but he was disappointed with fifth place in the 400 m finals, finishing in 46.93 s.Buck eager to claim more medals
BBC Sport (13 March 2009). Retrieved on 13 March 2009. However, he claimed the silver medal as part of Britain's

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap. It is traditionally the final event of a track meet. At top class events, th ...

team with a time of 3:07.04. Following the competition, he suffered a knee injury which ruled him out of competition for six weeks. Buck was part of the Olympics competing for Team GB in the 4×400 m relay at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Retirement

In July 2015 Buck announced that he was retiring from athletics to pursue a career as an actor, after accepting a place on a master's degree course at Birmingham School of Acting commencing that September. Buck ran his final race in St Peter Port,

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

at the Intertrust Anniversary Games, winning ahead of current GB Junior Cameron Chalmers.

Personal bests

All information taken from IAAF profileBiography Buck, Richard

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. Retrieved on 13 March 2009.

References

External links

* *
archive2
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buck, Richard 1986 births Living people English male sprinters British male sprinters Sportspeople from Grimsby Sportspeople from York Athletes from Leeds People from North Ferriby Alumni of Leeds Beckett University European Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists