The British Virgin Islands have already agreed to base themselves in Aston, Hertfordshire, for London 2012 and St Kitts and Nevis have also visited the area.

Now Alfred Emmanuel, the secretary general of the St Lucia Olympic Committee (SLOC), has been shown the facilities at Gosling Sports Park in Welwyn Garden City and the Hertfordshire Sports Village in Hatfield.

Gosling operational director Nicola Jaggard said: "It was a pleasure to meet with the St Lucia committee and show them our fantastic grounds.

"Gosling is excited about the Olympics and welcomes the St Lucian team and other teams to use Gosling as their main training base.

"Gosling has a friendly and professional team and would be a great asset to any athletes, coaches and sports people looking to train here in the run up to 2012.”

St Lucia, who made their Olympic debut at Atlanta in 1996, sent four athletes to Beijing in 2008 - three athletes and a swimmer.

The country, a former British colony which has a population of only 160,000, has never won a medal in the Games.

Nick Brooking, the director of sport at the Hertfordshire Sports Village, said: "As an approved pre-Games training camp for the Olympics and Paralympics, St Lucia chose to visit us to view the £15 million ($22 million) state-of-the-art facilities and we sincerely hope they choose Hertfordshire as their home for their preparation camps prior to 2012."


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