BERRY equestrian Shane Rose has claimed a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics as a member of the Australian eventing team.

The Aussies, Clayton Fredericks, Lucinda Fredericks, Sonja Johnson, Megan Jones and Rose, took the silver behind the Germans.

The 35-year-old Rose had a mixed competition with his mount All Luck.

It started disastrously when All Luck spooked during the dressage event, leaving him in 66th place on the individual placings.

But the Aussies were in first overall in the teams competition with 102.80 ahead of Germany on 110.5.

“It wasn’t such a good start,” Rose said.

“All Luck got a bit upset and something went wrong.

“It wasn’t how I had planned to start things.”

Rose and All Luck recovered brilliantly to post the fastest time in the cross country which saw him fly up the leaders board in the individual competition to be 16th overall.

“I was really happy with that ride,” he said.

“Unfortunately I had a couple of unlucky rides in the dressage and showjumping.”

None of the 68 cross country riders completed the Beas River course in the optimum time of eight minutes, meaning they all incurred time penalties, but Rose was the fastest in 8.23 minutes.

Despite this, the strong German team made their move in the team section to take the lead, albeit by just three points, 158.10 to 162.

It all came down to the showjumping test at Sha Tin Racecourse.

“We didn’t speak to each other about it,” Rose said.

“We were hoping everything was going to go perfectly, but our performance wasn’t quite good enough.

“We didn’t ride as well as we could have.”

Rose was the first Aussie on the course and despite a good showing with All Luck, conceded eight jumping penalties; Clayton Fredericks and Megan Jones both had four penalties; while Megan Jones went clear, but had time penalties.

Overall the Germans held on for victory with 166.10 points, ahead of Australia in the silver medal position on 171.20, with bronze going to Britain with 185.70.

“At the time we were really disappointed,” Rose said.

“It’s a fairly good achievement and as time goes on we will look at it more fondly.”

Individually Rose finished 27th overall, Megan Jones was the best of the Australians in fourth, Clayton Fredericks was seventh, Sonja Johnson 10th and Lucinda Fredericks 26th.

The campaign is over for the Shoalhaven’s other representative at the Games, Olyroos goalkeeper Adam Federici.

Federici played strongly in goals for the Australians, who started their campaign with a 1-all draw with Serbia, went down narrowly to powerhouse and gold medal favourites Argentina 1-nil, but were defeated 1-nil by Côte d’ Ivoire and failed to progress to the next round of competition.

The Shoalhaven has another link with the Games with former Shoalhaven Academy Swim coach Rohan Taylor in Beijing with his star charge Leisel Jones who has already picked up gold in the breaststroke.