Edwina Alexander, the first Australian to make the individual final at a Showjumping world championship, had just a single rail down to finish fourth at the World Equestrian Games in Germany.

The thrilling final, during which the four medal contenders ride their own and then each other's horses over four rounds, came down to the wire when Alexander, America's Beezie Madden, Germany's Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Belgium's Jos Lansink each jumped three consecutive clear rounds.

In the final rotation, Madden and Lansink jumped clear again, bringing the tally to 14 clear rounds in a row. Alexander was next out on Michaels-Beerbaum's Shutterfly, which had become increasingly upset in the highly-charged atmosphere of the main stadium, and unfortunately had the first part of the treble at fence four down for four faults.

When Michaels-Beerbaum then jumped clear on Madden's Authentic, she, Lansink and Madden, all on zero faults, progressed to a jump-off on their own horses for the medals.

Lansink was crowned world champion after jumping clear in 45.01 seconds on his wonderful Cavalor Cumano, which was named leading horse. Madden had one rail down in 43.74 seconds for silver and Michaels-Beerbaum had a rail in 45.4 seconds for the bronze.

"I'm very happy to be in the last four but a bit disappointed," said Holland-based Alexander, whose world ranking had rocketed from below 500th last May to 39th before WEG.

"I would have loved to have won a medal but someone had to be fourth and unfortunately that's me.

"All the riders were so fantastic over the whole week and I wasn't expecting to get to this position so I'm very happy with what's happened."

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