Britain lose their way to Olympics

Britain's showjumpers all but ruled themselves out of the 2004 Olympics yesterday when they came 16th in the World Equestrian Games here. It is their worst result ever in a world championship.

The failure to finish in the top five means their only chance of Olympic qualification is to be among the two best teams not already qualified for Athens in next year's European Championships in Donaueschingen, in Germany. But the British Olympic Association may decide next month not to approve the team's Olympic participation anyway, given this dismal performance.

It would be the first time since the second world war that Britain have failed to send a showjumping team to the Olympics. The last Olympic medal they won was a silver in 1984 but, with the exception of the World Games in 1994, where the team finished sixth, Britain had won a team medal in every world championship since 1978.

The team manager Derek Ricketts, who was a member of Britain's gold medal team in the 1978 championships, tried to remain as upbeat as possible. "They didn't go badly," he said. "They just got a lot of faults".

Ricketts, who took over the job less than a year ago, may be in danger of losing it if the £150,000 of lottery funding received by showjumping this year is not forthcoming next year.

That funding is dependent on the BOA's decision next month. "It will be a difficult case to fight," admitted Matt Straker, world class perfor mance manager for the British Equestrian Federation. "There are no immediate excuses. We need to be more consistent."

France, the 1990 world champions, took the title again yesterday in convincing style, finishing 7.80 points ahead of Sweden and taking their medal tally at these games to four golds and a silver. Both Sweden and third-placed Belgium collected their first ever world championship medals for showjumping, despite both teams missing one of their top riders, and Germany, world champions at the last two games, were fourth, just ahead of the Netherlands.

Besides those five, who qualify thus for the Olympics, four other European nations finished above Britain: Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and Spain.

All four of Britain's team members had disappointing rounds yesterday and none finished among the top 25 who go forward to the penultimate round of the individual competition tomorrow, from which the best four contest Sunday's final. Di Lampard (Abbervail Dream) and Tim Stockdale (Fresh Direct Parcival) both had 12 faults and Scott Smith (Cabri d'Elle) and Mark Armstrong (Elise) collected 16 and 17 respectively.

Stockdale, making his debut on the British team at 38, was the best placed British rider, including Wednesday's scores, and the only one who had done well enough to jump in yesterday's second round. He went brilliantly until his horse put a foot in the water, the most influential fence on the course, and collected four faults to finish 35th.

The fifth World Equestrian Games in four years' time will be in Aachen.