British Swimming has issued a statement of intent to work with a new, purpose built centre in Mallorca, Spain. Based around a 10-lane, outdoor, 50m pool at Colonia de Sant Jordi on the south coast of the island, the deal will see British Swimming become a priority client in terms of warm weather training camps.

The BEST (Blue Water Elite Swimming Training) Centre will be available for training camps for various teams. Training groups will be able to use the new pool, gym, dry land area, meeting room and changing facilities while open water swimming will be well served in terms of the near-by coast. The centre, which has preferred accommodation close by, will be officially opened next spring.

Britain recently announced that it was closing down its Australian Gold Coast offshore base from 2009 because it wanted to spend its money and attention on building a home-based network of 50m training centres.