Boxing association chief General Taweep Jantararoj and national boxing squad manager Sakchai Wongmalasit say they will continue to work for the team for the upcoming London Games in 2012, while the Beijing Games boxers will have some time to rest before returning to the training camp on October 1.

Sakchai “Peter” Wongmalasit, manager of the Thai Olympic boxing squad, said he wants to continue to work for the national squad for the London Games in 2012 unless the team would be able to find “a more appropriate” manager.

Sakchai is responsible for the Thai boxers’ successes in Athens Games in 2004 and the Beijing Games in 2008. Thailand received from the Athens Games three medals, a gold, a silver, and a bronze, and two more, a gold and a silver, from the Beijing Games. However, Sakchai considers the Beijing result a “grand” performance as Manus’s win was the first time a Thai athlete ever received a second Olympic medal.

General Taweep Jantararoj, president of the Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand (ABAT), said as long as he is the ABAT president, he would prefer to have Sakchai as the team manager as the two work well with each other and have been able to win at least a gold medal from each Olympic. He said Sakchai has been a great morale boost to the Thai boxers.

The ABAT president said he would have the eight Beijing Games boxers visit their sponsors in the Bangkok area, which may last about 10 days. Then the boxers would be allowed to go home and but would have to return to the training camp on October 1.

The general said only lightweight Pichai Sayota and flyweight Beijing champion Somjit Jongjorhor are planning to quit from the team and the boxing career, while Manus Boonjumnong’s plan to move up to the welterweight class may be difficult to accommodate as his younger brother Non Boonjumnong already occupies that class. The ABAT president prefers to see Manus continue to fight in the light welterweight.

General Taweep said one of his continuous tasks is to find replacements for the retired boxers and he has recruited some younger boxers to enter the training camp and would send them to fight in the youth world championship tournament.

The ABAT president said he told the athletes who did not win a medal from the Beijing Games not to have regret as some of them did not receive justice from the judges and referees of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA).

General Taweep, who earlier claimed there was a lobbying attempt against the Thai boxers, said the AIBA’s lack of transparency at the Beijing Games was even pointed out by its own judges.

The general said he would continue to press the issue with AIBA, while he was confident the Thai boxers would be able to win gold medals without any lobbying attempts.  

News: Daliynews