BRITISH eventing star William Fox-Pitt said the fault was all his own after seeing his hopes of Olympic title glory disappear in Deodoro.

The Sturminster Newton rider, who was in an induced coma just 10 months ago after suffering head trauma following a fall at the World Young Horse Championship, collected 20 penalties following a cross-country run-out with Chilli Morning.

Fox-Pitt, 47, had led the competition after dressage and looked on course to write a fairytale comeback story, but an early error and a handful of time faults dropped him way off the medal pace in 22nd position.

A punishing course tested all combinations - there were four fallers among the first 11 starters, including Ireland's Padraig McCarthy - with first British rider Gemma Tattersall having two run-outs on Quicklook V and Pippa Funnell running out aboard Billy The Biz at the final water challenge.

Tattersall's fellow Olympic newcomer Kitty King then had a refusal on Ceylor LAN, meaning that Britain lie a distant seventh overnight in a team competition led by Australia, with New Zealand second, France third, reigning Olympic champions Germany fourth and Ireland eighth.

Britain have won an Olympic eventing team medal at every Games since 1996, but they are currently a huge 91 penalties off bronze medal position.

Australia's Christopher Burton leads the individual competition on Santano II, with Germany's Michael Jung - the London 2012 individual gold medal winner - second, France's Astier Nicolas third and 60-year-old double Olympic champion Mark Todd, of New Zealand, in fourth.

Team and individual medals will be decided after showjumping on this afternoon.

Fox-Pitt said: "I had a very good round, it's just annoying that I went past that third element. It was really unfortunate.

"It was my fault entirely. I went too quickly for him, and there was no way I could turn him, so he didn't do anything wrong.

"He is great. He is a lovely horse, and to be riding him around the course is a luxury, so I'm sad I have wasted it a bit.

"It wasn't a pleasurable course to ride, but this wasn't a pleasurable day, it was a hard work day.

"Watching those first few horses, you could see it was asking tough questions all the way along and you could see most of them didn't come up with the answers."