HIGHWORTH-based eventer Paul Tapner has missed out on the chance to represent his country at the Olympic Games in Rio after not being selected for Australia’s eventing team.

Despite some impressive results this season, including victory in the CIC*** at Tattersalls on his Olympic hopeful Prince Mayo, the 41-year-old has not been selected as part of the four-strong team, which was announced this morning.

Instead Christopher Burton, who claimed victory Barbury in the CIC*** at the weekend, has been selected with his horse Santano II and the world number two will be joined by Sam Griffiths, with Paulank Brockagh, Shane Rose, with CP Qualified, and Stuart Tinney, with Pluto Mio.

Australia didn’t win an equestrian medal in London four years ago and despite helping his nation to qualify for Rio on Kilronan at the FEI World Equestrian Games, Tapner will not have the chance to appear at his first Games.

However, Tapner may have had the last word on the selection as he secured a second-place finish at the Event Master Riders (ERM) series at Barbury Castle Horse Trials at the weekend.

The Aussie put in a stellar performance on Yogi Bear VIII to finish second with a score of 44.2, a result that leaves him in second on the ERM leader board after his seventh and twelfth placings in leg one and two.

Now with no Olympic Games in the calendar, Tapner is eyeing to finish on the podium come the end of the series, with £30,000 available to the overall winner.

“I am really happy and the horse had just been amazing,” he said after climbing off the podium at Barbury.

“He has done very well here at Barbury before, he came third here (in 2014) so to go one better is pretty amazing.

“To be beaten by Andrew Nicholson, it is what his fifth time winning here? I can’t be too unhappy with that.

“I was very happy to be on the podium and I would have liked to have been in the gold medal position but the king of Barbury still reigns.

“I am pretty confident this puts me second in the series, we’re halfway through now and it is very exciting to be in that position.

“Hopefully we will have a few more good results to come yet which means hopefully a podium finish in the series would be quite nice as well.”

Tapner has been a vocal figure in the development of the ERM series and is pleased to see how well it is going down with the spectators, with a large crowd at Barbury gathered around the podium watching the big screen, despite the arrival of an untimely rain shower.

“It is amazing, we keep going from strength-to-strength,” added Tapner.

“We have had three-times as many viewers for the cross country on the live stream as we have had before so the word is certainly spreading about the series.

“The atmosphere here at the podium that we have created is amazing and it is the first time we have had anything like this in the sport.

“We have got so many ideas that we are just going to keep getting bigger and better with as the series progresses.

“I am very proud to be able to compete and also be involved on the admin side.”