BRITAIN'S William Fox-Pitt wins individual bronze at the 2013 HSBC FEI European Eventing Championships in Sweden.

In the team competition, Germany took the gold, whilst the host nation Sweden, took silver and France the bronze. The Italian team put in impressive final day performances to finish in fourth place whilst Britain finished in sixth place after Belgium in the final team standings.

The individual competition culminated in a nail-bitingly tense finish, as Great Britain's William Fox-Pitt produced a smooth round on the striking chestnut stallion Chilli Morning but sadly lowered one rail to drop from individual silver to bronze position, finishing on a score of 40.6.

Germany's Ingrid Klimke and FRH Escada JS jumped clear to take silver with 39.4 penalties, whilst the current World and Olympic champion Michael Jung took his second successive individual European gold, this time with Halunke FBW who rolled a rail but finished with a considerable lead ahead of his team mate on 32.6.

GB's riders had mixed fortunes. Pippa Funnell and Mrs Carol Toliver's Mirage D'Elle finished in 40th place. Senior squad debutants Izzy Taylor and Mr Guy Avis's KBIS Briarlands Matilda jumped an impressive round under pressure but dropped down the placings to finish in 35th place, after they had a pole down and a single time penalty.

Olympic pairing Tina Cook and Miners Frolic, owned by Mr and Mrs Nicholas Embiricos and Mrs Sarah Pelham, as ever showed their fantastic partnership to jump a solid round but lowered a single pole to finish in 13th place overall.

William said of his double Bramham CCI3* champion and European ride Chilli Morning, who is owned by Chris and Lisa Stone and by the stallion Phanotomic: "I came here with the expectation of winning an individual medal. If Chilli was on good form, I knew he could, and if he wasn't, then he wasn't. He certainly met my expectations. I am delighted with him, he has come here and won me a medal. We came here with hopes to win a team medal, and naturally we are disappointed. We've been very fortunate to be part of strong teams for so long when things have gone right".

The British equestrian teams are supported by the UK Sport Lottery funded World Class Programme.

Top ten nation standings:

1st Germany, 116.2 points

2nd Sweden, 134.0

3rd France, 151.6

4th Italy, 167.0

5th Belgium, 179.2

6th Britain, 180.6

7th Ireland, 234.4

8th Switzerland, 267.6

9th Netherlands, 1,120.0

10th Belarus, 2,106.6