MJ Tumbridge has been left with a mountain to climb if she is to make next year's Olympics.

But the Bermudian equestrienne is determined that an injury to her top mount, Ginger May Killinghurst, which ruled her out of this week's Pan American Championships in the USA, will not derail her bid to represent the Island at the Athens Games.

The horse came off worst when she collided with a fence during a competition at Whitton Castle in the UK at the tail end of last month. Contracting an infection as a result, Ginger May it had been hoped might recover in time for the trip to Fair Hill, Maryland, but it was not to be.

Tumbridge will now miss out on vital qualification points needed to make the Olympiad next August and, as a result, will have to redouble her efforts in the early part of next year if she is to meet the standard. She currently has six points but needs between 45 and 65, depending on the cut-off, if she is going to make the biggest event on the sporting calendar.

"I ran the horse at Whitton Castle, my last run, and the horse hit a fence," she said from her English base yesterday. "The fence must have had something it should not have had on it because the slice went through the boot and through her leg.

"We did think she was going to be fine but it got infected, even though she was on antibiotics."

Tumbridge then had an anxious wait to see if the horse would recover, and initially it looked encouraging.

"The vet thought it would be fine and then it got worse and it went that way for a while," she said. "We had to make the decision at the beginning of last week and quite a few vets said that, even though it looked a bit better, one could not guarantee that, with all the travelling, it would not re-infect so we had to make the decision not to run her."

In hindsight, it might be suggested that a run-out so close to a major event was courting trouble, but Tumbridge stressed it was necessary.

"One always asks that. But, yes it was, because she needed to have another run-out," she said. "She hadn't run in a while and it was my last one before the Championships. We thought we had timed it perfectly, so that if she did bang herself we would still have the time. You think of all these things.

"Why it happened? I don't know, I am so furious about it. But, obviously, Fair Hill wasn't meant to be for me. You just have to put your hands up in the air and move on."

Moving on means giving Ginger May ample time to recover and competing with the four other horses at Tumbridge's disposal. That, at least, is a silver lining but she admits that her back is up against the wall.

"It puts me in a very bad situation really. I haven't been able to accumulate the points that I need and so the beginning of next year is going to be absolutely crucial," she said. "The good thing is that I have more horses competing at that level now and, as a result, a better chance of getting the points. But it does put a lot of pressure on me. I must do very well to get enough points for Athens.

"They are saying you need between 45 and 65 points and at the moment I am nowhere near that. I need to go and be in the top ten on probably two horses.

"The whole point of going to Fair Hill was because I could get Championship points, that would have been excellent. But I am not in that position so I have to organise myself for next year and just do as well as I can."

Despite the blow, Tumbridge still possesses a great deal of self-belief.

"I feel confident. I have got very good horses and I feel confident they have learned a lot from this year," she said. "My horses are young but they are good. Next year, they will be that little more mature and I can see them being in the top ten which is where I need to be. I have got to go in there knowing I have got good horses, knowing I am going to be training hard and feeling like I have a great chance of doing it."

"It is a setback and is incredibly frustrating," she added. "I sit over this side thinking I shouldn't be sitting where I am, I should be at Fair Hill defending my title. I am incredibly frustrated but I don't want to put my myself in a hole because there is no point. I am going to turn it around and make it positive and I am going to come out next year, get the results and get myself to Athens."

In the meantime, Tumbridge passed on her best wishes to fellow Bermudian, Tim Collins, who will be at Fair Hill as he steps up his own attempt to make the Athens grade.

"I wish Tim all the luck, I hope he goes well and I hope he gets a qualifying result and gets the points so that at least there will be one of us that will definitely get there," she said.