Cook lives the dream after claiming bronze in dramatic Eventing final

Tina Cook, a replacement for Zara Phillips on her enforced withdrawal from the British Eventing team in June, won an unexpected bronze medal in a dramatic individual final in Hong Kong.

Cook, 37 and a mother of two young toddlers, had a couple of hours earlier also collected bronze as a member of the Great Britain team which had travelled here with high hopes of a first gold medal since 1972.

While third place for the team was something of a disappointment, Cook's podium in the individual competition was a genuine delight. She wept openly as she embraced first team manager Yogi Breisner then her husband, Philip. That's the order on such occasions.

Her father, Josh Gifford, four-times champion National Hunt jockey and the man who trained Aldaniti in Bob Champion's emotional Grand National victory of 1981, was back at home at the family farm in Findon, Sussex, looking after his grandchildren, Isabel, who is three, and 18-month-old Harry.

'I have been sobbing my eyes out,' said Cook, when asked to describe her obvious emotion.

'You dream about this for years. I went to Sydney (as travelling reserve) and wanted to show what I could do, but I did not get the opportunity.'

Her opportunity this time came when both Zara Phillips and Lucy Wiegersma were forced to pull out. Little did Cook know that when Toytown, the sporting Royal's world championship-winning horse, broke loose in an indoor schooling area and ran back to the stables before falling to the ground last June, events would take her on to an Olympic podium twice in a night.

'I wasn't gutted when not originally picked,' added Cook. She had deliberately not entered Miners Frolic in Badminton, reasoning that her horse would reach its peak in time for London 2012. 'There were more experienced four-star and championship horses ahead of him.'

The floodlit arena at Sha Tin, surrounded by an incongrous mix of mountains and multi-storey flats, was packed to its capacity of 10,000. No need to fill empty seats with unsuspecting urchins, as had been reported at some events in Beijing.

Cook had begun the final day in 10th position, looking only to do her bit for the team. Mary King, in fifth, was thought to be the individual hope. After all, Call Again Cavalier had not knocked over a show jumping fence in competition since 2005. Cavvy, though, fluffed his final line, knocking down the last two fences on his first round of the evening.

Producing Britain's only clear round in the team competition, Cook improved into a share of sixth position. The final jump-off, which did not finish until almost midnight, could not have been closer or more tense. The final seven riders were separated by less than a single fence, meaning that any of them could have won any colour - or nothing.

Cook was first of the challengers to enter the ring. Her second clear round of the evening, completed only just inside the time limit, left her on 57.4 penalty points and meant an agonising wait. The local audience, who had walked out of the dressage, remained stuck to their seats.

First Clayton Fredericks of Australia, then Germany's Andreas Dibowski knocked down timber. Two down, four to go. A clear round by American Gina Miles on Irish-bred McKinlaigh, who sported an orange-sized lump on one leg and had only just passed the veterinary inspection, put her ahead on 56.1 but was followed by two more faltering riders.

Ultimately, only a gold medal-winning performance by final rider Hinrich Romeike of Germany - who finished with 54.2 on Marius - denied Cook what would have been a glorious silver. That went to Miles.

For all Cook's understandable delight, there is no doubting that a couple of months ago, and even as recently as last week, Great Britain had entertained serious thoughts of winning one, perhaps even two, gold medals. But injury and some bad luck intervened. William Fox-Pitt, for example, was left rueing a disastrous dressage.

And the absence of the Phillips-Toytown combination was an obvious factor, as King conceded.

'Zara was a big mainstay and riding on a crest of a wave with Toytown,' she said.

'Without her it did make us weaker. It's disappointing that we have not got a better medal. We had set our sights on gold. But that has spurred me on for another four years to get that gold.'

Funnily enough, Tina Cook is thinking precisely the same.