Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - 6:06 AM

Australia's equestrian team won silver in the eventing competition in Hong Kong on Tuesday evening after an imperious display from the Germans in the showjumping final secured a win in the three-day tournament.

Hinrich Peter Romeike dropped just one rail on a superb final run for the Germans, giving them a 5.10 penalty buffer over Australia's team of Shane Rose, Sonja Johnson, Lucinda Fredericks, Clayton Fredericks and Megan Jones.

Jones came agonisingly close to a silver medal in the individual equestrian event, but was forced to settle for fourth after her horse Irish Jester clipped the very last rail on the course.

A flawless run from Romeike atop his horse Marius in the individual event secured him a second gold medal for the evening with a total of 54.20 penalty points, ahead of American Gina Miles and Britain's Kristina Cook.

Clayton Fredericks finished seventh in the individual standings with Johnson back in 10th.

In the team event, Germany had led after the cross-country section on Monday, and Australia took top spot in the opening dressage event.

A strong all-round performance saw Germany's mixed team of Romeike, Peter Thomsen, Frank Ostholt, Andreas Dibowski and Ingrid Klimke restrict itself to just 166.10 penalty points.

Jones had the penultimate ride of the evening and Australia's last, producing a near-flawless display atop Irish Jester to record just 4 penalty points.

Romeike needed to knock off at least three rails to put Australia into gold medal contention, but a fine run completed the strongest individual performance of the tournament and saw the Germans to safety atop the medal podium.

Rose says it was too hard to peg the Germans back on the tough Hong Kong course.

"It proved very difficult for most of the combinations out there. The rest of the team did a great job, and it's great to have that silver medal," he said.

Great Britain finished third on 185.70 points, 14.5 adrift of the Australians.

Clayton Fredericks, linchpin of the Australian team aboard Ben Along Time, said his team came to Hong Kong to win gold, describing it as "everything we have worked for".

But he conceded an Olympic medal, whatever the colour, was worth the work.

Romeike, on his gelding Marius, clinched the gold for his team as the last of 57 riders to take on the 13 fences.

His one fault, which cost him 4 penalty points, may have been a personal disappointment for a man who has taken his hobby to Olympian heights.

This victory was consolation of sorts for Germany's bitter loss in the Athens Games in 2004, when the gold medal was taken away from the team and given to France after Bettina Hoy, one of the best-known riders in the world, was penalised for crossing the start line twice.

Two of the Germans jumped clear rounds - Andreas Dibowski on Butts Leon and Frank Ostholt on Mr Medicott.

The British knew early on they were playing for third place, with team anchor William Fox-Pitt telling reporters after his own imperfect round he hoped he had done "enough to keep us in the hunt for the bronze medal".