Hartpury College is to open the new Modern Pentathlon Academy to train elite junior athletes to international standard, ready to compete in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

An agreement has just been signed between Hartpury College and The Modern Pentathlon Association of Great Britain (MPAGB) for the college to provide training facilities and educational resources for up to 12 students from September 2003.

The students, all existing members of the Great Britain Junior Squad and potential candidates for the 2008 Olympics, will be selected by MPAGB for specialist coaching at Hartpury.

They will be able to combine modern pentathlon training with a full-time course of study on any of the courses offered by the college.

The modern pentathlon is one of the oldest Olympic sports and is said to represent the five skills traditionally needed by a soldier in the course of delivering a king's message: swimming, running, riding, shooting and sword-fighting.

Bernie Moss, the national development coach for junior modern pentathlon and ex-Olympic competitor, has been appointed as head coach by the MPAGB to set the athletes' training programmes and coach at Hartpury on a daily basis.

Moss said: "I'm delighted to be relocating to Hartpury to coach the next generation of modern pentathletes. The facilities are of an international standard and I'm sure the athletes will thrive in this top class sporting environment."

The new academy will be the sixth to be located at Hartpury alongside equine, rugby, football, golf and netball.

The training programme will include swimming coaching five mornings a week, riding instruction from three hours a week, and coaching in running, shooting and fencing.