In a tense final showjumping round Britain, helped by an outstanding performance from Tina Cook and Miner’s Frolic, who had the only clear round of the five riders, held on to their overnight third position to take the team bronze in the Olympic three-day event in Sha Tin. Germany, who last won in Seoul in 1988, avenged the loss of their medal in Athens four years ago to take the gold ahead of Australia by a margin of 5.1 points.

Although Yogi Breisner, the British team manager, had come to Hong Kong to win the gold after silver medals in Athens and Sydney, he had nothing but praise for his five riders. “They have done a fantastic job. The horses all performed well and I’m delighted that we’ve won a third successive Olympic medal,” he said.

The achievement was all the more deserving coming after the loss of two of the original team of five - Cook and Daisy Dick on Springalong replacing Zara Phillips and Lucy Wiegersma in the team when Toytown and Shaabrak were injured. Breisner’s own role has been key. Helped by a superb back-up team, he has masterminded the preparation for the challenge of competing in a tropical climate, enabling all five horses and riders successfully complete the event.

Cook’s performance was superb throughout, making her Olympic debut at the age of 37 after being left out of the squad for Sydney. None of the 74 who started the competition could have been more focused.

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After a superb opening dressage test and clear cross-country round on Miner’s Frolic - who has never competed in a four-star event - she was lying tenth at the start of the showjumping. Holding her nerve in the final phase, she jumped fluently round the 13-fence course - under the dazzling floodlights of the Sha Tin arena - to complete an exemplary team performance.

Mary King, who had been lying in joint-fifth place on Call Again Cavalier at the start of the showjumping looked as if she was going to follow with a clear round but her horse, who has never had a showjump down in a competition since 2005, chose this moment to break his record. Clear untl the final line, they faulted at the first part of the combination and at the final fence.

“He just went a bit quiet down the line,” King, 47, competing in her fifth Olympic Games, said. “The fences were smaller than the ones we were practising outside. He went a little flat.”

William Fox-Pitt on Parkmore Ed provided the third "counting" score out of the five. He finished on four faults after going in too deep at fence nine, a set of wavy planks. But even if he and King had gained clear rounds, there was little the team could do to overhaul the Australians and Germans. The latter were on a mission from the start of these Games, having lost out on gold in Athens because Bettina Hoy made a technical mistake in the showjumping.

There was a tense moment in the final round when Australia’s last rider, Megan Jones, needed a clear round on Irish Jester for the team to have a chance of overtaking Germany but her four faults at fence seven decided the medals. Germany’s last rider, Hinrich Romeike, a practising dentist, made one mistake on the brilliant Marius - which lost him the individual lead - but his team were already celebrating.