.

Thailand’s boxing association is planning to create three teams of London Olympics athletes that would be “the best in the world” with a budget of 274 million Baht.

President of the Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand (ABAT) General Taweep Jantararoj said the association has planned to create three teams of boxing athletes for the London Olympic Games in 2012, which would be “the best in the world”.

He also said each of the three teams would have ten members, one for each weight class, and ten sparring partners. The teams will be supervised by nine Thai and three foreigner mentors.

According to the ABAT president, the athletes would enter a training camp and would be continuously competing in international tournaments to gain experiences while building physical and mental capabilities as well as developing boxing skills to the “level of international champions”.

The athletes would spend about ten weeks prior to the games in preparing for the foreign environments and the bouts against international opponents. The preparation abroad would include six weeks of training in Cuba, three in Europe, and the last week in England, said the general.

Training will start on October 1 this year, which will last for 47 months until September of 2012. He said they will use a facility at Bonanza center at Khao Yai in Nakorn Ratchasima, but may also use another facility in Bangkok as well.

The ABAT president said the training program would need a budget of 68,696,314 Baht per year or a total of 274,785,256 Baht which the ABAT is planning to request from the Sports Authority of Thailand, the National Sports Development Fund, and the private sector.

“I am highly confident that if the ABAT has received a strong cooperation, the medal target would not be too far to reach, as we have already succeeded in doing it the past and will continue to succeed again in the future,” said General Taweep.