SYDNEY, Australia — Olympic modern pentathlon gold medalist Alex Parygin was dropped from the Australian team for the Beijing Games on Tuesday after Britain successfully appealed his selection to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The Australian Olympic Committee said it had been forced to "deselect" Parygin after the CAS ruled in Britain's favor.

Parygin, who won gold for his native Kazakhstan at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, qualified for the Australian team for Beijing in the five-discipline sport — comprising fencing, pistol shooting, show jumping, swimming and running — by winning the Oceania championships at Tokyo last year.

However, show jumping was not contested at Tokyo because of equine influenza in the region and the Modern Pentathlon Association of Great Britain appealed to the CAS claiming the sport's world governing body should not have sanctioned the Oceania event without the equestrian leg.

The CAS upheld the appeal, awarding Parygin's place at the Olympics to the next-highest ranked athlete, Britain's Nick Woodbridge.

"We are deeply disappointed with this result and we have exhausted all options to try and keep Alex on the 2008 Australian Olympic Team," the AOC's director of sport Fiona de Jong said. "It is regrettable, but as always we respect the CAS decision."

De Jong said there was no further course of appeal for Parygin, who moved to Australia prior to the 2000 Olympics.

Parygin said he was considering his future in the sport after the CAS ruling.

"It's not right, it's not the truth," Parygin said. "One year ago, (the result was) official, they say I qualified for the Olympic Games.

"I prepared myself very well, I was ready to get some medal and they treat me like this?"

The fate of Australia's female pentathlete Angie Darby is now uncertain because she also qualified for Beijing at the Oceania championships.