British rider Rodney Powell underwent an operation for a broken ankle after falling from his horse yesterday and was ruled out of the Sydney Games.

Powell was expected to be a medal contender in the individual three-day event and as such a leading rival of Bermuda's MJ Tumbridge, gold medallist in the Pan-Am Games last summer.

Like Powell, Tumbridge is already in Sydney with her horse Bermuda's Gold, preparing for the three-day event which begins on Tuesday, September 19.

Powell suffered the injury after his mount Flintstone reared up on a training run at Sydney's Horsley Park.

He was operated on at Liverpool Hospital and will fly home next week. He will be replaced in the squad by Kristina Gifford on The Gangster, who had travelled to Sydney as a reserve.

Powell's injury left the British equestrian squad in sombre mood. "The whole team is disappointed for Rodney and wish him a speedy recovery,'' said British team official Simon Clegg.

"This is a terrible thing to happen to him so close to the Games.'' It is particularly hard on Powell who, after winning Badminton in 1991, spent most of the rest of the decade in the doldrums. He then broke his hip in a fall at Gatcombe Park in 1999 leading to a year of intensive physiotherapy.

During that year he also saw two of his best horses die. "Some riders are lucky, and some aren't, and I seem to be among those who aren't,'' he said at the time.

Eventing has always carried a high risk but safety aspects came very much to the fore when five British riders were killed during 1999.

The deaths included Peta Beckett, Robert Slade, Peter McLean, Polly Phillipps and Simon Long, who was a close friend of Powell.

SAILING SLG