Middlesbrough's Rockliffe Park training ground has been named in an elite list of potential training camps for teams and individuals competing in the 2012 Olympics.

Based in Hurworth near Darlington, Rockliffe features in a pre-games training camp guide for London 2012 following an assessment of its facilities by the games' organising committee.

Boro Chief Executive Keith Lamb welcomed the news and hailed it as a major coup for Middlesbrough Football Club.

"We are naturally delighted that Rockliffe has been selected as a potential base for sportsmen and women preparing for an event as prestigious as the Olympic Games, " he said.

"Rockliffe Park is acknowledged across football as one of the best training venues in the UK, if not Europe, but this is a great accolade for the football club and the whole of the north-east.

"We will naturally do all we can to make Rockliffe as attractive a training venue as possible for those preparing for the 2012 Olympics."

Over 600 facilities from across the UK appear in the training camp guide, to be published at the Beijing Games. It contains high quality elite sporting facilities right across the UK which will give teams and individual athletes a great selection of venues from which they can choose to prepare for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee, commented: "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.

"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."