Cook leads celebrations

While Britain's men were struggling to make an early impact yesterday, the women were still celebrating the fightback that brought them the team title in the World Championships at Millfield School the day before.

Stephanie Cook revived memories of her surge to Olympic gold last year when she underpinned a British performance of sustained resilience. The British team, which also included Kate Allenby, the Olympic bronze medallist, and Georgina Harland, had struggled to come to terms with powerful challenges from Hungary and Belarus in the early events but came through to take the gold with 4,876 points, ahead of Russia, with 4,781, and the Czech Republic, who scored 4,745.

Britain's revival started in the third event, the swimming, when they climbed to fourth out of 15 teams but they made their move for the title in the most testing section, the riding, and were assisted by errors by their rivals. Cook, Allenby and Harland kept their heads, and with the final run a strong point, their coolness in the riding arena set them up for ultimate success.