Germany take dressage team gold

Germany's Isabelle Werth claimed her fifth Olympic gold medal

Germany continued their domination of the Olympic team dressage event as they took gold for the seventh Games in succession on Thursday.

The team of Heike Kemmer, Nadine Capellmann and Isabell Werth edged the Netherlands into silver medal position, with Denmark taking the bronze.

Werth, on board Satchmo, took the top individual score of 76.417%, just ahead of the Netherlands' Anky van Grunsven.

Great Britain finished sixth overall, with Emma Hindle scoring 71.125%.

Britain, whose team was made up by Laura Bechtolsheimer and Jane Gregory, started the second day in second place but that was a somewhat false position with strong riders from Germany and the Netherlands still to come.

Bechtolsheimer, on her Olympic debut, struggled to get the best out of her horse Mistral Hojris as she scored 65917%.

"It was one of those days when you are on the very fine line of absolutely amazing and it just being too much to control," said Bechtolsheimer, who made her Olympic debut.

A lot of people didn't believe in us but we proved them wrong Germany's Isabell Werth

"He offered me everything tonight but I couldn't quite hold it together.

"We had to go for it but I'm probably just lacking that bit of experience. I was very chilled out before I entered the arena but when we got in there he just got too big and extravagant that it was a bit too much.

"Unfortunately he was more on the ball than I was. He (Mistral Hojris) was ready to win gold which was a little bit too much for me."

Cannot play media. Sorry, this media is not available in your territory.

Video - GB sixth in team dressage, Germany take gold

But there was good news for the British team with Hindle, who finished fourth, and Bechtolsheimer, 24th, both qualifying among the top 25 individual riders to go through to the individual final on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Werth said her fifth Olympic gold medal had been a real team effort.

"The whole team really pulled together," said Werth.

"We were working for each other. A lot of people didn't believe in us but we proved them wrong."