THERE was no silver lining for Rye-dale ace Richard Buck at the European Championships in Barcelona.
Having helped the Great Britain 4x400 metres team through the relay heats, the 23-year-old was omitted from the line-up for Sunday’s final.
Conrad Williams, Graham Hedman, Buck, and Rob Tobin qualified for the final by winning their heat on Saturday in three minutes 04.09 seconds.
But City of York Athletics Club star Buck, a former pupil at Lady Lumley’s School, Pickering, and Hedman were left out in favour of individual medallists Martyn Rooney and Michael Bingham as Britain took silver in the final behind Russia.
Buck’s former coach, Geoff Barraclough, who is also Buck’s grandfather, expressed his surprise at the decision to drop him adding that, in his opinion, Britain would have won gold in the final had he run.
Barraclough said Buck was the fastest of the British quartet on Saturday yet was still omitted from the final.
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