Whitaker keeps it in the family

The 24-year-old, from Barnsley, denied her cousin Robert Whitaker a hat-trick of Open crowns in dramatic fashion at the LG Arena in Birmingham.

Robert, who had led throughout the four-day competition, knocked down the final fence of an eight horse jump-off on USA Today.

It left him tied with Ellen on overall points, but her time of 48.10 seconds aboard Equimax Ocolado was more than three seconds clear of the field.

"Equimax Ocolado jumped out of his skin and was so careful every step of the way," said Ellen, who collected 25,000 and a first Open title just six months after taking top honours at the Horse of the Year Show on the same horse.

"This is one title I have been chasing for a while.

"It is one I really wanted to win, so I am ecstatic with the result."

She became the first female Open champion since Ireland's Jessica Kuerten in 2007, and it has set her up for potential further successes this year as the build-up begins gathering momentum towards London 2012.

Her previous best Open performance had been sixth last year.

Third place went to Holland's Eric van der Vleuten with Utascha SFN, who won the Rolex World Cup qualifier at Olympia almost four months ago.

Irish challenger Billy Twomey (Je t'Aime Flamenco) was fourth, Norway's Geir Gulliksen (L'Espoir) fifth, German Daniel Deusser (Cabreado) sixth, Ireland's Shane Breen (Mullaghdrin Gold Rain) seventh and New Zealander Samantha McIntosh (Loxley) 38 eighth.

Showjumping attention now switches to the World Cup final in Geneva, which starts on Wednesday.