MEDWAY will play host to the Modern Pentathlon World Cup in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics.

Medway Council's Cabinet met on Tuesday and approved a report recommending that Medway stage the event in April, 2010.

About 200 of the world's best modern pentathletes will descend on Medway for the four-day event in Gillingham.

It will be held at the proposed Medway Park regional centre of excellence, with the revamped Black Lion Leisure Centre as the centrepiece.

The £11.1m Medway Park project is due for completion in the summer of 2009.

Officials of the Modern Pentathlon Association of Great Britain visited a number of loactions in Kent - including Maidstone, Canterbury and Tonbridge - before deciding on Medway.