Top star Whitaker in fight for life

John Whitaker, Britain's top showjumper, is fighting for his life in a Stockholm hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

Whitaker collapsed at his hotel on Friday before the start of a three-day showjumping event where he had been invited to compete along with two of his children, Louise and Robert.

Whitaker, 45, had been complaining that he did not feel well before he collapsed.

Meanwhile, Robert, 17, finished second in the Land Rover Grand Prix on the eight-year-old mare Think Twice who he will ride at Olympia next week. The winner was Sweden's Olympic team rider Helena Lundback with Mynta.

Whitaker and his brother Michael are two of Britain's most famous showjumpers. He first came to the notice of the wider public in partner-ship with his great grey horse Everest Milton.

Milton was the first horse in showjumping to win more than a million pounds in prize money.

Together Milton and Whitaker won the World Cup Final twice, the world's richest Grand Prix and the European Championship.

Whitaker won a team silver at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where he also won an individual silver, and then repeated the team feat at the following Games in Los Angeles.

He also won team silver (1986), individual silver (1990) and three team bronzes (1982, 1990, 1998) at the World Championships, alongside three European Championship team golds (1985, 1987, 1989), two individual silvers (1983, 1987), three team silvers (1983, 1991, 1993) and a team bronze (1985).