The "Tomorrow's Champions" programme was announced by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, during a visit to the Beijing, the host of summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

 

He was accompanied by Dame Kelly Holmes, an ambassador for the programme, which is being run by UK Sport, the UK's high performance sports agency.

 

"Tomorrow's Champions" is part of a wider Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between UK Sport and its Chinese equivalent, the General Administration for Sport in China (GAS). 

 

It looks to bring together some of the UK's brightest future talents with their Chinese counterparts for training and exchange visits.

 

Through the visits the UK's athletes and their coaches can learn more about the unique experience and pressures that a home Games brings, whilst their Chinese counterparts will have an early opportunity to learn about the environment in which they will compete in 2012, UK Sport said.

 

Sue Campbell, UK Sport's chair was with Brown in Beijing and together they saw Darius Knight, Paul Drinkhall and two more young British table tennis players taking on Chinese opposition. 

 

She was claimed to be quick to see the opportunities that "Tomorrow's Champions" would offer.

 

She said: "It is entirely appropriate that the Prime Minister should drop in to witness some of our brightest table tennis prospects sparring with Chinese opponents in the shadow of the Beijing Olympic complex.

 

"For any athlete the step up from international competition to competing at an Olympic Games is intimidating enough, but to have to do so for the first time at a home Games can be one of the toughest challenges in sport.

 

"Tomorrow's Champions aims to take some of the pressure off, by helping our athletes and coaches learn from those for whom the experience is freshest in their minds.

 

"At the same time we can add significant value to those sports already working with, or wishing to develop, meaningful training relationships with their opposite numbers in China."

 

UK Sport and GAShave had a MOU in sport since 1998 to develop sporting exchanges and promote international relations between the two countries.

 

But with the recent renewal of the arrangement and the developing bond between the next two summer Olympic hosts, UK Sport is seeking to ensure that the agreement delivers as much of a performance impact as possible and "Tomorrow's Champions" is an early product of that approach, they said.

 

The opportunity to be a part of Tomorrow's Champions has been offered to the UK's Olympic and Paralympic sports and a number including table tennis, judo, taekwondo, waterpolo, diving and goalball have already come forward.