The deal, which was agreed in Berlin, where the World Championships started today, means that both Jamaica and the United States, two of the most powerful athletics teams in the world, will be doing their preparations for the Olympics in the same city.

 

Birmingham agreed a deal with USA Track & Field more than two years ago and are due to sign an official contract at a special ceremony in the city next month.

 

Jamaica had been courted by a number of British cities, including Glasgow and Cardiff, but Howard Aris, President of the Jamaican Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA), has confirmed that they chosen BIrmingham following two days of talks during which Whitby met Bolt, who set world records when winning the 100 and 200 metres at the Olympics in Beijing last year and was then part of the team that set a new best when they won the 4x100m relay.

 

He said: “Birmingham representatives came to Jamaica earlier this year and we’ve been very impressed with what the city has to offer.

 

"So I’m delighted to announce that the Jamaica Track and Field team will be using Birmingham as their training location in 2012.”

 

Full details of the deal have yet to be announced but it is expected that the Jamaican team will train at Birmingham University as the US are expected to use Alexander Stadium.

 

Bolt's mother, Jennifer, is be a guest of the city later this month when she is the area visiting relatives in Wolverhamption while a special VIP tour of Edgbaston cricket ground has been arranged for his brother Sadeeki.

 

Jamaica won a record 11 medals at the Olympics in Beijing last year, including six gold, and Bolt was the biggest star of the Games.

 

Whitby said: “Usain is fastest out of the blocks on the track, and Birmingham has proved fastest out of the blocks in securing the Jamaican track and field training camp.

 

“We have a large Caribbean and Jamaican community in Birmingham and this deal will build on those close links. We have agreed on a series of events leading up to 2012 to enrich and strengthen that relationship.

 

“I have met Usain, who is an impressive athlete, and promised his family a warm welcome when they visit Birmingham.”

 

Whitby, though, will be hoping that Jamaica's training camp in 2012 is not overshadowed by what has happened at the last two organised by the JAAA.

 

But the last two training camps organised by the JAAA have both caused controversy among the country's leading athletes.

Earlier this week six Jamaican athletes, including three Olympic gold medallists, were dropped from their team after they failed to show up at a training camp in Nuremberg.

The trio - 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser, 400m gold medallist Melanie Walker and Asafa Powell, the former world record holder who anchored the 4x100m team, to victory in Beijing - were only reinstated following the intervention of International Association of Athletics Federations President Lamine Diack.

It followed a similar incident before Beijing last year, also involving Fraser and Powell, when a group of athletes also refused to show up at a pre-Olympic training camp at Tianjin in China.