Double gold for Germany

By Sophie Taylor

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Germany dominated the Olympic equestrian three-day event on Tuesday, capturing the team and individual gold medals to wipe out bitter memories of disqualification at the Athens Games.

First, the German team fought off an Australian quintet of first-time Olympians to scoop the team prize. Then Hinrich Romeike won a cliffhanger gold in a show jumping showdown.

The Germans exploded with joy after both triumphs, in sharp contrast to Athens four years ago, when Bettina Hoy was forced to hand back her gold after she was disqualified for crossing the starting line in a warm-up lap before the show jumping.

"I feel happy, very happy. I'm thankful to possess such a wonderful magic horse," Romeike said of his mount Marius.

"Athens is a world away," he added. "I just had a feeling (about the horse). I just liked his outline, his silhouette."

In the individual event, American Gina Miles took the silver and Britain's Kristina Cook the bronze.

"I was thrilled to be in form and I felt like I'd done everything that I'd set out to do ... and it just got better and better and better," Miles told reporters after her round.

Germany landed the team prize ahead of Australia and Britain.

CLEAR ROUND

After his clear round in the team event, Germany's Frank Ostholt said, "That was a huge stone that fell from my heart."

All five riders in the Australian team, who finished the three-day event with 171.20 faults, were novices, including husband and wife Clayton and Lucinda Fredericks.

Their team mate Megan Jones, who once worked as a groom, said: "It's always amazing to come home from your first Games with some kind of bling, so any color will do."

New Zealander Mark Todd, 52, came out of an eight-year retirement to take part in his sixth Olympics. He enjoyed himself so much despite not being among the medal contenders that he is already contemplating a challenge for the London Games in 2012.

"It has been very successful on lots of levels. I know I can be competitive at this level. Now that I've had this break I have freshened up," Todd said after finishing the show jumping round with just one penalty time point.

"I just love being in the whole atmosphere again," he said, wrapping up a memorable evening with another clear round in the individual event.

(Additional reporting by James Pomfret and Paul Majendie)