alt JAPAN is set to sign a deal with Loughborough University for their Olympic team to set up a pre-Games training camp there for the London 2012 Games, insidethegames can exclusively reveal.

 

A high-level delegation, including the Japanese Education and Sports Minister Kenji Kosaka, visited the Leicestershire market town last week to inspect the facilities.

 

It was their second visit to Loughborough and a formal deal is now expected to be signed early in the New Year.

 

As reported on insidethegames in August, Loughborough officials had also travelled out to the Olympics in Beijing to cement the relationship.

 

The Japanese team is always one of the biggest to attend the Olympics.

 

It sent a team of 350 to Beijing where they won a total of 25 medals, including nine gold.

 

Loughborough, where London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe studied, claims to have the largest campus of any European university equipped with world-class performance facilities across a multi-range of sports.

 

Further development work is due to take place over the next four years in the run-up to London 2012, particularly in swimming, a sport in which the Japanese are traditionally strong, having won a total of 62 medals, including 20 gold.

The University also claims to have the best integrated sports development environment in the world and is home to some of the country’s leading coaches, sports scientists and support staff.
 
It is able to offer training for 22 of the possible 26 sports and disciplines that will be on the London 2012 programme.
 
It is also making much of its good international transport links and an estimated 80 minute journey into the Olympic Park by 2012.
 
London 2012 will be the first occasion that Japan have competed in the Olympics in Britain.
 
They did not make their debut until the Stockholm Games in 1912, four years after London staged the Olympics for the first time, and were not invited in 1948 because of their involvement in World War Two.
 
Loughborough is the latest town or region in Britain to sign a deal with an overseas country for 2012.
 
Bristol were first when they agreed a deal with Kenya and were closely followed by Birmingham, who have arranged with for the United States track and field team to be based there.
 
Other deals include the North West region, who will host Thailand and 15 countries from Oceania, and Wales, who will be the home for the Australian Paralympic team.
 
Ireland also claims to have reached an agreement with Australia's swimming team to train at Abbotstown in West Dublin.