Scottish training centres in frame for 2012

London Olympics organising committee includes 28 venues from north of border in list of 600 preparation camps for visiting teams

TWENTY-EIGHT Scottish venues out of a United Kingdom total of 600 have been included in the official list of potential training camps for the London Olympics in 2012.

The venues will be marketed together by the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Locog), but it is up to each individual country to choose their training sites.

Inclusion on the Locog list is therefore no guarantee of selection as an actual training camp. There are currently 205 member countries of the International Olympic Committee, and although many could have more than one training camp, it is probable that at least half of the 600 venues will go unused.

Details of all the facilities will be made available to other countries by Locog during the Games in Beijing this August, but owners of the venues are also free to try to sell their wares through marketing ventures of their own. Failure to do so is likely to seriously damage the chances of attracting clients.

Owners of venues throughout the UK were invited to apply for inclusion in the Locog list. There was no stipulated limit on the number of successful venues per sport or per region: instead, Locog applied a number of criteria to assess the suitability of each location.

Sport Scotland, the umbrella body which is in the process of being integrated with the Scottish Institute of Sport, co-ordinated all the applications from north of the Border. Some venues which would have met the criteria decided not to apply on the grounds that use as a training camp would disrupt their regular activities. Of the venues that did apply, roughly four out of five made it on to the Locog list.

"We are delighted to see that 80 per cent of Scottish applicants have been included in the Locog guide, with a wide geographical spread across the country," said Stewart Harris, Sport Scotland's chief executive. "We clearly have a good range of both specialist and multi-sport facilities that meet Locog's stringent criteria, and it is great news that we are able to cater for 30 out of the 36 Olympic disciplines."

Some of the Scottish venues which have been selected, such as the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, have hosted major sporting events in the past. Others are earmarked to do so in the future – the National Indoor Sports Arena in Glasgow, for example, will be the setting for several sports when the 2012 Commonwealth Games come to Scotland's biggest city. Aberdeen, Dundee, Grangemouth and Stirling are among other places to receive official approval for their facilities.

The Locog list will not necessarily be exclusive, in the sense that other facilities anywhere in the country remain free to market themselves and try to attract custom. Inclusion in one big online brochure, however, will be a significant advantage, both because the cost of marketing will be met by Locog, and because each national association will be offered a grant of £25,000 to encourage them to hire a base in this country.

There are two contrasting reasons behind the grant. One is quite simply an inducement to national teams to do their pre-Games training in Britain as opposed to in other nearby countries. The other, of more altruistic origin, is to enable smaller, less well-off countries to hold a training camp.

For some time the world's richer nations have prepared for major events by assembling their teams close to the competition venue – in 2004, for example, the Team GB holding camp for the Athens Olympics was in Cyprus. Some smaller countries, by contrast, have tended to use up all their funds simply in getting athletes over just in time for the actual competition.

Although the 600-strong list is not scheduled to go live until the late summer, venues can tout for business at any time. At least some of the 28 locations north of the Border could receive a significant boost to their hopes in June, when a Commonwealth Games conference is held in Glasgow.

Delegates from most Commonwealth countries are expected to attend the conference, which Scottish facilities will be able to use as a shop window. The work of the Glasgow 2014 bid team is also expected to have a positive effect.

As part of their assessment of the rival claims of Glasgow and the Nigerian capital of Abuja, representatives of Commonwealth Games Associations from around the world toured both cities. As the vote in Sri Lanka went 47-24 in Glasgow's favour, it is reasonable to presume that a majority of delegates were impressed by what they saw in Scotland.

Locog believes the quality of facilities on offer throughout the UK has boosted its commitment to an athlete-centred Games. "We said that we wanted the London Games to be for athletes, and the facilities listed in this guide will really help overseas athletes prepare well," said Sebastian Coe, Locog's chairman. "It also provides a great opportunity for towns throughout the UK to get involved in our plans. The process we have been through shows a great spread of high-quality facilities throughout the UK that can be used by elite-level athletes.."

TRAINING CAMP VENUES IN SCOTLAND
• 1. Aberdeen Regional Sports Facility – Badminton, Basketball, Table Tennis

• 2. Broadwood Sports Facility and Gymnastics Academy – Rhythmic Gymnastics, Artistic Gymnastics

• 3. Denwood Target Shooting Centre – Shooting

• 4. DG One Leisure Complex and David Keswick Athletic Centre – Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Road Cycling, Mountain Bike

• 5. Forthbank Sports Village – Badminton, Football, Hockey, Table Tennis

• 6. Glenmore Lodge National Centre – Road Cycling, Mountain Bike, Triathlon

• 7. Glentress Forest – Mountain Bike

• 8. Grangemouth Stadium and National Indoor Athletics Academy – Athletics, Weightlifting

• 9. Heriot-Watt University, Centre for Sport and Exercise – Fencing, Football, Judo, Taekwondo, Wrestling

• 10. National Indoor Sports Arena – Basketball, Track Cycling, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Wrestling

• 11. Nevis Range, Forestry Commission Scotland – Mountain Bike

• 12. Palace of Art Centre for Sports Excellence – Boxing, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling

• 13. Peffermill National Hockey Academy – Hockey

• 14. Pitreavie Athletics Centre – Athletics

• 15. RGU:SPORT – Badminton, Boxing, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Indoor Volleyball

• 16. Robert Gordon's College – Hockey

• 17. Royal Commonwealth Pool – Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo

• 18. Scotstoun Leisure Centre – Athletics, Badminton

• 19. Scottish Sailing Institute – Sailing

• 20. Sportscotland National Centre Cumbrae – Sailing

• 21. Sportscotland National Centre Inverclyde – Archery, Badminton, Basketball, Road Cycling, Fencing, Football, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Artistic Gymnastics, Hockey, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Indoor Volleyball, Weightlifting, Wrestling

• 22. Strathclyde Country Park – Badminton, Basketball, Handball, Judo, Table Tennis, Indoor Volleyball, Wrestling

• 23. Strathclyde Country Park – Canoe/Kayak Flatwater, Rowing

• 24. The Scottish National Equestrian Centre – Equestrian

• 25. Toryglen Regional Indoor Training Centre – Football

• 26. University of Dundee – Archery, Boxing, Fencing, Judo, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling

• 27. University of Stirling – Swimming, Football, Judo, Taekwondo, Triathlon, Wrestling

• 28. Wishaw Sports Centre – Athletics, Judo, Indoor Volleyball, Wrestling