The team team will use St Mary's Strawberry Hill campus in South West London following an agreement between the Chinese Athletic Association and the University College was signed by Zhaocai Du, vice-president and secretary general of the Chinese Athletic Association and vice-president of the Asian Athletic Association, and Dick Fisher, the head of St Mary's 2012 preparations.

They will train using elite sports facilities on campus, which include a new £8.25 million ($13.6 million) sports centre due to be completed later this year, and will have access to a wide range of sports science and sports medicine services.

The squad will also have a Chinese chef to assist St Mary's catering staff to prepare their meals.

"We are very happy that our endurance squad is going to St Mary's as we prepare for the London Olympic Games and we look forward to working with them in the future," said Du.


The University College was visited by a Chinese walking squad recently, while its campus sports facilities were used for training by the Chinese squad competing in this year's Virgin London Marathon, which included Xiaolin Zhu (pictured), who came fourth in the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"We are an internationally recognised centre for endurance running that has fostered the development of Mo Farah, Steph Twell, Andrew Osagie and many others, and to link up with such a powerful squad as the Chinese is not only a great honour but affirmation of all the good work that has gone on here over the years," said Fisher.

The rest of China's athletics team is planning to base itself in Yorkshire at the Leeds Metropolitan University in the build-up to London 2012.

China's walkers are expected to be among the main challengers for medals at next year's Olympics.

On Sunday (April 24) at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Race Walking Challenge in Taicang Si Tianfeng set a season's best in the 50 kilometres as Chinese athletes filled the first three places.

"We are delighted that the Chinese have chosen St Mary's as the Olympic base for their endurance runners and walkers and they can be assured of the highest quality of support, especially with our new sports centre coming on stream this year," said Philip Esler, the St Mary's Principal.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
February 2011: Leeds signs China's athletics team for London 2012 training camp