Athletes from Malaysia will be using the University of Bath as a training base in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics.

Officials from the campus were disappointed to have missed out on hosting the UK team to Aldershot, but were always confident that its world-class facilities would be put to good use in the lead-up to the games.

The Malaysian National Sports Institute announced last night that it would sign a memorandum of understanding with the university in October to enable its athletes preparing for the 2012 Olympics to train at Claverton Down.

The country won only one silver medal at the Beijing games last year and has only ever won four medals in the history of the movement.

All four were in badminton - one of the sports that it will be using the university facilities for.

NSI director general Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz said the autumn agreement would pave the way for the university to be used as Malaysia's high performance training centre in Europe.

He said training at the university would particularly be for the three sports where there prospects of gold medals - badminton, archery and cycling.

The Bath campus has been chosen over the university with the best-known sporting pedigree in the country, Loughborough.

Dr Ramlan visited both universities in March before coming to a decision.

The University of Bath will also be used for preparation for events such as the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the badminton Super Series and cycling circuit races in Europe.