IRELAND’S ARTHUR LANIGAN O’KEEFFE is set to compete at the London 2012 Olympics after he was handed a last-minute place in the men’s modern pentathlon event.

The 20-year-old’s lucky break came this morning as news broke that Poland’s Lukaz Klekot had tested positive for a banned substance. Melhylhexaneemine, which is an agent commonly used in weight loss substance, showed up in a test taken by Klekot at the 2012 Polish Championships.

Klekot was immediately withdrawn from Poland’s team for the London Games by the national Olympic Committee and Lanigan O’Keeffe has been called up to replace him.  He joins Tara’s Natalya Coyle, doubling Ireland’s Olympic representation in modern pentathlon.

“UIPM fully supports the Polish Olympic Committee in this discussion, as we have a zero policy to doping. This is a strict reminder to all other athletes that they need to exercise extreme caution over what they put into their body” stated Joël Bouzou, secretary general of Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne.

Modern Pentathlon has a proud tradition in being a clean sport for many years. This incident is disappointing, however it is an isolated incident, as UIPM has done 210 in and out of competition tests in 2012 alone, and they have all been negative. UIPM is confident that the rest of the 72 athletes that will line up in London will be clean and we can focus on high performance to celebrate the 100 years anniversary of Modern Pentathlon in the Olympic Games.

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