“It's a lifetime dream come true - I can't believe it's happening,” was Tina Cook’s tearful response to winning an unexpected individual bronze medal, together with a team bronze for Great Britain in the three-day event yesterday. Originally selected only as reserve, Cook, 37, and Miners Frolic completed four days of top-class competition with clear rounds in both the team and individual showjumping competitions yesterday.

Germany won the team and individual gold medals - Hinrich Romeike, a practising dentist, winning the individual gold on Marius. Australia had to settle for the silver, five points behind Germany. The United States had some compensation for a dismal team result, in which they finished seventh, when Gina Miles on McKinlaigh took the individual silver.

Yogi Breisner, Britain’s team manager, had come to Hong Kong to win the gold, after silver medals at Athens and Sydney, but, with Germany and Australia proving impossible to overhaul in the showjumping, was content to secure the bronze. “I’m delighted with all five riders, they have all played their part and performed superbly,” he said, reserving special praise for Cook. “To come here on a young horse and perform as she has done is beyond all our expectations.”

It helps that she was bred to the sport. Her father is Josh Gifford, the former National Hunt trainer, and her mother, Althea Roger-Smith, was an international showjumper. Cook was at the forefront of the sport throughout the 1990s, winning a clutch of medals, including team gold at the 1994 World Championships, until taking time out to have her children - Isobel, 3, and Harry, 18 months.

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Miners Frolic, 10, came to her yard as a four-year-old and Cook knew then that he was special. “He’s the best horse I’ve ever had, I knew he was exceptional and I’ve planned his career so carefully,” she said.

Placed in three three-star events last year, including second at Blenheim, she took a gamble on missing Badminton in May. “I didn’t want to push him too hard, but I realised it could jeopardise my chances of Olympic selection by not going,” she said.

Lucy Wiegersma and Sharon Hunt were duly selected ahead of her. It was only with the withdrawals of Zara Phillips and then Wiegersma, both because of injured horses, that Cook got the call-up and realised that her long-held dream could become a reality.

At the start of yesterday’s showjumping, which involved a first round to decide the team competition and a further shortened course involving the top 25 riders to decide the individual medals, Cook had been tenth. Mary King, in joint fifth place, had looked the more likely bet for individual honours. With none of the first three Britons - Daisy Dick on Spring Along, William Fox-Pitt on Parkmore Ed and Sharon Hunt on Tankers Town - achieving clear rounds, Cook raised British spirits with a faultless performance. Miners Frolic jumped in copybook style round the 13 fences.

King, 47, whose career has included a broken neck and winning a European team gold when five months pregnant, was clear on Call Again Cavalier until the final line of fences, when the first part of the double and the last fence fell. “The fences were smaller than the ones we were jumping outside and he just felt a bit flat,” King said. “It’s the first time he’s had a mistake in the showjumping for three years.”

Despite her faults, Britain were far enough ahead of Italy in fourth place to retain the bronze. But Australia had widened the gap to the silver with clear rounds from two riders. They had the chance to go ahead of Germany if their last rider, Megan Jones on Irish Jester, was clear, but four faults at fence seven assured Germany of the gold, their first since Seoul in 1988. Britain, even if Fox-Pitt and King had gone clear, could not have taken the silver.

Cook’s clear round lifted her to joint sixth place at the start of the final individual jumping contest, when only 3.2 points - fewer than the penalty of one showjumping fence - separated the top six riders. When Cook delivered a second impeccable round it put the pressure on the leaders - one mistake by any of them and they dropped out of medal contention.

Clayton Fredericks, of Australia, on Ben Along Time was first to buckle, followed by Andreas Dibowski, of Germany, on Butts Leon. Britain’s supporters could hardly bear to watch as Cook climbed towards the medals. When Miles, in fourth, secured her clear round to give the United States their only medal, Cook’s march was temporarily halted.

Jones, of Australia, looked set for the bronze, until hitting the final fence. Cook was now fourth. When Ingrid Klimke, of Germany, in the silver-medal position, faulted at fence two, Cook’s medal was assured, Breisner engulfing her in a warm embrace.

Romeike, the last to compete, had to go clear to win the gold. One of the most popular riders on the circuit, the “flying dentist”, as he is called, gave his supporters a heart-stopping three minutes as he rattled several fences, but Marius sensed the occasion and finished clear to resounding cheers, Romeike becoming only the second German rider to win the individual gold in Games history.

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