But the Aussies are incensed that the Modern Pentathlon Association of Great Britain (MPAGB) has taken its Australian equivalent to a Swiss court to get Australian representative Alex Parygin thrown off the Beijing Olympics team so it can get its own man on the start-line in China.

 

The British have appealed against the fact that Melbourne-based Parygin, who won a gold medal for his native Kazakhstan in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, qualified for the Games at the Oceania Championships in Tokyo last year when the competition did not include horse-jumping as equine influenza meant horse competitions were banned at the time.

 

If the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) invalidates the Oceania, and the Australian Championships, Britain will grab the vacant spot for their pentathlete, Nick Woodbridge.

 

Woodbridge should find out the result today when the CAS publishes its verdict.

 

If he wins, it will complete a good day for the former world youth champion from Wellington in Shropshire.

 

He turns 22 tomorrow.

 

The Australians, however, are not impressed.

 

Modern Pentathlon Australia president Jason Pennell said the problem was confusion from the international body, UIPM, about the status of the competitions conducted without horse-jumping.

 

Evidence given to the court showed that there were three versions of Olympic criteria and an e-mail allowing the shortened Oceania Championships to have world ranking points and be considered as an eligible competition.

 

Parygin told the Sydney Morning Herald in a story to be published tomorrow: "It is ridiculous, it should not happen, I am still training and I hope everything is all right but I can't understand how another country can do this."

 

The MPAGB were unavaible for comment.