By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year

August 8 - Ireland's Olympic Council and the country's governing body for horse sport are tomorrow due to announce details of a new scheme designed to help stamp out the doping scandals which have overshadowed the team's appearances at the last two Olympics.



Patrick Hickey, President of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), and Horse Sport Ireland's (HSI) chairman Joe Walsh will be present at the announcement.

It is expected the pair will give details of new procedures to ensure that no embarrassing repetition occurs at London 2012 of the previous two incidents at Beijing and Athens, where horses ridden by Irish riders tested positive for prohibited substances.

First, in Athens in 2004, Cian O'Connor was stripped of the gold medal he won in the show jumping after his horse Waterford Crystal tested positive for fluphenazine and zuclophenthixol.

Then at the Olympics in 2008 Denis Lynch's horse Lantinus (pictured) tested positive for capsaicin, a banned pain relieving medication derived from chili peppers, and was prevented from taking part in the final of the show jumping, which was held in Hong Kong.

After that embarrassment, HSI  introduced a series of measures designed to solve the problem, including the implementation of the International Equestrian Federation's (FEI) "Clean Sport'"campaign, which is aimed at eliminating doping in equestrian sport.

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