Education
He attended Oxford Brookes University reading Construction Management and rowed for the university boat club, coached by Peter Haining and Richard Spratley.
He attended Oxford Brookes University reading Construction Management and rowed for the university boat club, coached by Peter Haining and Richard Spratley.
Richard began rowing at the age of 14, at Coleraine Academical Institution, under the coaching of Bobby Platt. He later left Coleraine Institute and joined Bann Rowing Club Coleraine at the age of 16, and went on to represent Ireland in the junior pair at the 2003 Home Internationals in Cork with Stephen Feeney, under the coaching of Simon Hamilton (Bann Rowing Club). lieutenant was there that he progressed into the Great Britain Rowing team
In 2005, Richard attended the World Under-23 Rowing Championships held in Amsterdam, where he took silver in the Lightweight Men"s Quadruple Scull.
He attended his first senior World Rowing Championships later on that summer (held at Dorney Lake) in the Lightweight Men"s Pair. In 2007 he rowed in the lightweight men"s four, alongside James Clarke, Paul Mattick and James Lindsay-Fynn.
The following year the same quartet represented Great Britain at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, where they finished in fifth place.