It's not over yet

John Whitaker's horse Calvaro demolished one fence

On the face of it, Great Britain did not get off to the best of starts in the Olympic individual show-jumping competition on Monday. But, as the BBC's Lee McKenzie reports, there is still a long way to go.

After the first of three qualifying rounds in the "individual", Michael Whitaker (Prince Of Wales) was joint 32nd, Geoff Billington (It's Otto) 34th, Carl Edwards (Bit More Candy) joint 47th and John Whitaker (Calvaro) joint 66th of the 74 starters.

However, all is not lost for the British quartet, because the top 45 will go through to the final stages on Sunday, and none of them is yet out of the running.

In any case, there are still two more qualifying rounds to go on Thursday.

These also double up as the team competition, with the medals for that section awarded at the end of the day.

Improvement to come

While none of the British team members performed at their maximum potential, there is plenty of improvement to come.

Like all the participants, they were out of match practice following six weeks without proper competition.

In the circumstances, Michael Whitaker, Geoff Billington and Carl Edwards can feel reasonably satisfied with their performances.

Despite not being at their peak, they are still poised to make a strong bid for the top 45.

The main worry concerns John Whitaker, who had a calamitous round on Calvaro, in which the horse clocked up 17 jumping faults, looking reluctant at several fences and demolishing one of them completely.

But even he can force his way into the reckoning if he recovers his composure in time for Thursday's final selection process.

At that point, all faults accumulated to date are wiped out and the riders start again from scratch, so it is not all over for Great Britain in the individual competition yet - despite Monday's unspectacular start to the contest.