SARK-BORN dressage star Carl Hester yesterday helped put Great Britain in prime position for an Olympic medal. Hester, 37, exceeded his wildest expectations to finish day one of the competition at the Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Centre in fourth place, while Team GB are in bronze-medal position overnight.

‘I’m thrilled. It’s a real turn-up for the books; a real fairytale,’ said Hester yesterday, after unwinding with a couple of beers on the beach.

‘I had to go first for the team because they were not quite sure what to expect from the horse.

‘The marks always seem to be higher on the second day when everyone has warmed up, so I’m likely to go down.

‘But I never imagined that I would get that high. I will definitely get into the final now. And we’re in with a shout of a team medal.’

Hester, on Escapado, and Emma Hindle, who sits in 11th place riding Wie Weltmeyer, rode yesterday.

Richard Davison, on Ballaseyr Royale, and Nicola McGivern, on Active Walero, will compete this morning.

Each rider is assessed by five judges.

Their scores are averaged out to give the rider a total score for the round. The best three riders’ scores are then added to give the team total.

‘We’ll have to keep our fingers crossed that we will keep the scores high tomorrow. Richard will ride first, followed by Nicola a couple of hours later,’ said Hester.

And he is stunned that he sits so high in the individual competition, though he said that his placing was likely to drop.

‘I always said that if I got into the top 25 I would have won the mini-Olympics in my head. I’ll probably drop 12 to 15 places tomorrow, but that still leaves me well up.’

Hester’s score is carried forward to the Grand Prix Special; then the two scores are added together, which gives his final mark.

However, his success has taken him by surprise – he was not expecting to be so high up the leader-board.

‘My horse is very good at the special section, but I haven’t really prepared anything great for the music programme because, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting to get that far.

‘Some of the guys have spent thousands putting a music programme together, whereas I’ve spent £500.’

Hester feared that, as a borderline selection for the GB team, he was not fully supported in the national media.

‘I thought that if I went wrong I’d get shafted in the press. But I also thought that if I did well I could stick it right back at them.

‘In the arena it’s 36C, with no wind – ideal conditions. The support for the GB team has been fantastic. It was a decent crowd and many had stayed on after the eventing competition.

‘The atmosphere is great: there’s nothing like it. When my score went up on the board, everyone went wild; it was an unbelievable feeling.

‘I’ve never had such good scores at this level. This is where you want to be.’