Britain's Robert Whitaker fourth in Olympia World Cup

Robert Whitaker and Catwalk IV were 13th out of 38 in the opening showjumping round

British showjumper Robert Whitaker narrowly missed out on the Olympia World Cup podium, finishing fourth with Catwalk IV in London.

The pair were 0.79 seconds slower than Sweden's Malin Baryard-Johnsson with H&M Tornesch in a jump-off for third.

Germany's Marco Kutscher took victory ahead of countryman Daniel Deusser.

Whitaker said: "It's always tough going first in the jump-off as you don't know what everyone else is going to do and whether to play it safe."

He added: "My aim was to keep it clean, which I did, so I have to be happy with the result."

The pair will return for the final night of competition on Monday to compete in the Olympia Grand Prix event.

Britain's Scott Brash has been world number one for 13 months and is seeking overhaul the current record of 15 months in the New Year.

However his target was not helped by a disappointing result at Olympia - failing to reach the second round after knocking down a fence.

Countryman and fellow Olympic gold medal winner Ben Maher suffered a similar fate after incurring a penalty for completing the course outside the set time.