Padraig Harrington was left with yet another runners-up finish to his name today as Ryder Cup team-mate Miguel Angel Jimenez pipped him to the Omega Hong Kong Open title.

The 40-year-old Spaniard's fifth victory of 2004 forced defending champion Harrington to settle for the 25th second place of his career - on a day which also saw Nick Faldo fail in his bid to end nearly eight years without a victory.

Only a stroke off the lead with 18 holes to play, Faldo finished joint sixth.

While both he and Harrington came off the 18th green disappointed it was actually South African James Kingston who had cause to be the most dejected.

Level with Jimenez with two to play Kingston, seeking his first European Tour title, rolled home a 35-foot birdie putt on the 17th.

But Jimenez dramatically followed him in from 25 feet to get back on terms and then Kingston hooked his final drive against a fence.

He was forced to take a penalty drop and did well to rescue a bogey five, but the Malaga golfer was only eight feet from the flag in two and had two putts for the trophy.

A closing 66, which matched the lowest score of the day, gave Jimenez the £70,303 first prize with a 14-under-par total of 266, three shots better than Harrington's aggregate last year.

Harrington had been four behind with only five holes to play but birdied the 14th and 15th and after missing from eight feet at the next hit his approach to four feet on the 406-yard 17th.

There seemed every chance he would make it a three-way tie walking to the final tee, but his two playing partners thwarted him and as it was the Dubliner had to make a 30-foot putt on the last just to have a chance of a play-off. He left it short.

Harrington said afterwards that it was what happened earlier that cost him his first successful defence of any title and gave him his fifth runners-up finish this year.

"I missed six to eight putts and putted badly all day. The 17th was irrelevant," he commented.

"I won from one behind with two to play last year and it was not looking too bad again. But that's the way it goes - and I needed to finish second here to stay sixth in the world."

Both he and Jimenez now fly to California for the Target World Challenge hosted by Tiger Woods.

Jimenez said: "Five wins this year is amazing - you don't think you are going to win that much.

"And with Vijay Singh having nine wins (at age 41) it proves that golf is not just for young people. It's a long-life sport."

Faldo's next appearance will be the Heineken Classic in Melbourne in February and he will have a new caddie then. Long-time bag-carrier Fanny Sunesson has decided to pursue other interests, although she says she will still make the occasional appearance.

"I needed more trust in my swing," said the 47-year-old following his 71. "There was not enough - I was second-guessing myself and I was wrong.

"I made only one putt and it was not good enough, that's the bottom line. There was no margin for error and if it didn't come off I was stuffed.

"But there was lots of good stuff and I'll work on the good bits."

It was still his best finish since he was fourth in the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth in May.

Collated final round scores:

(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 70):

266 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 65 64 71 66 (£70,303)

267 Padraig Harrington 65 68 67 67, James Kingston (Rsa) 71 67 62 67 (£36,635 each)

270 Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) 67 68 66 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 69 67 65 69 (£19,488 each)

272 David Howell 65 66 70 71, Nick Faldo 69 67 65 71 (£13,709 each)

273 Zhang Lian-wei (Chn) 70 64 73 66, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 67 68 71 67, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 66 67 72 68, Charl Schwzrtzel (Rsa) 65 70 70 68

274 Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 68 70 69 67, Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 68 69 69 68, Bryan Saltus (USA) 66 68 71 69, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69 64 71 70, Gregory Havret (Fra) 66 68 68 72, Adam Groom (Aus) 64 70 68 72

275 Andrew Pitts (USA) 72 66 69 68

276 Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 72 67 70 67, Steve Webster 69 68 71 68, Soren Hansen (Den) 68 71 69 68, Jamie Donaldson 71 65 71 69, Liang Wen-chong (Chn) 67 68 71 70

277 Christopher Hanell (Swe) 72 68 69 68, Ted Oh (Kor) 68 69 71 69, Amandeep Johl (Ind) 71 69 68 69, Markus Brier (Aut) 70 72 66 69, Philippe Lima (Por) 67 70 70 70

278 Clay Devers (USA) 67 72 73 66, Damien McGrane 72 67 71 68, Thaworn Wiratchant (Thai) 69 70 70 69, Boonchu Ruangkit (Tha) 71 71 67 69, Barry Lane 68 71 69 70, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 68 73 67 70

279 Richard Bland 71 66 72 70, Nick Dougherty 69 67 72 71, Harmeet Kahlon (Ind) 66 71 70 72, Mardan Mamat (Sing) 68 72 67 72

280 Simon Wakefield 71 71 72 66, Robert Jacobson (USA) 70 70 73 67, Paul Lawrie 69 71 68 72, Thongchai Jaidee (Thai) 67 68 72 73, Choi Gwang-soo (Kor) 69 67 70 74

281 Leif Westerberg (Swe) 70 70 70 71, Simon Yates 70 72 68 71

282 Jonathan Lomas 72 68 76 66, Nico Van Rensburg (Rsa) 70 69 74 69, Wang Ter-chang (Tai) 71 71 70 70, Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 68 70 72 72, Jason Knutzon (USA) 69 69 70 74

283 Adam Fraser (Aus) 68 72 73 70, Raymond Russell 68 74 71 70, David Gleeson (Aus) 69 72 71 71, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 69 68 74 72, Gerry Norquist (USA) 70 70 71 72, Rick Gibson (Can) 70 66 72 75

284 Des Terblanche (Rsa) 71 69 73 71, Jonathan Cheetham 68 73 71 72, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 70 71 71 72

285 Stephen Dodd 68 72 75 70, Philip Golding 73 69 73 70, Paul Broadhurst 69 71 74 71, Derek Fung (Hkg) 66 75 72 72, Lam Chih-bing (Sin) 68 69 75 73, Pablo Del Olmo (Mex) 67 72 71 75, Li Chao (Chn) 69 69 69 78

286 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 69 73 72 72, Scott Barr (Aus) 66 72 75 73, Gary Rusnak (USA) 69 71 71 75

287 Lee Sung-man (Kor) 69 72 74 72

288 David Park 70 70 76 72, Jason Dawes (Aus) 71 67 76 74

289 Lee Slattery 68 73 74 74, Nobuhito Sato (Jpn) 70 72 68 79

290 Andrew Marshall 70 72 78 70, Gary Emerson 71 71 74 74, Eiji Mizoguchi (Jpn) 71 71 73 75

291 Danny Chia (Mal) 69 71 72 79

292 Edward Loar (USA) 70 70 74 78

293 Anthony Summers (Aus) 71 71 72 79

297 Mike Cunning (USA) 74 67 75 81