by Hamish Marshall BBC Spotlight

Efforts are being stepped up to entice athletes to use the South West for training ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

All of the 21 venues in Devon and Cornwall approved as official sites for pre-Games training, are still waiting to sign a contract with a foreign team.

South West Advisor for 2012 Deborah Bertram told BBC Spotlight: "We have a lot to offer here in the South West.

"There are a lot of small teams that are looking for venues and we have some great venues here."

She added: "What we've been doing is offering up advice and expertise to the venues, many of whom have never hosted an elite athlete or an international team."

The official venues approved by the London 2012 Organising Committee cover a wide range of sports, from sailing at Mylor in Cornwall, to basketball and boxing at Plymouth Pavilions in Devon.

But with a little under two years to go before the start of the Games, of the 38 Pre-Games Training Camp Agreements already in place, Devon and Cornwall do not feature on the list.

Bertram said: "If national Olympic and national Paralympic committees choose to train in one of the venues that appear in the London 2012 Official Guide they get a £25,000 award, and that's never been offered before."

Among the venues hoping to be used is Carn Brea Leisure Centre, near Camborne in Cornwall, where athletics coach Tony Lett coach is trying to tempt international teams to come and use the facilities.

We still have plenty to play for at the moment Deborah Bertram

Lett said: "We're looking at the smaller countries that don't necessarily have teams in every sport.

"But the majority of teams that come will have at least two athletes."

In Devon, Okehampton's table tennis centre is also positioning itself as a potential stop-off point for players to come and practice in the months before the Olympics get underway.

Okehampton Table Tennis Club's Fred Phillips believes the town could benefit from a mini-boom as experienced by Weymouth where teams are practicing for sailing.

Phillips said: "For the town obviously nothing like this would have happened before.

"And it's not going to be just short term, it'll be at least a few weeks so people can come in in and have a look and see how it should be done.

It is not officially too late for teams to register an interest in the region, and with 205 Olympic teams and 162 Paralympic teams set to compete in the London 2012 Games, the market is still wide open.

Bertram concluded: "We still have plenty to play for at the moment and that's what we're focusing on - we're focusing on providing the information to the venues."

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