Boxing: From bars to boot camp as playboy Olympic boxers are sent packing to rural Vietnam

Thailand have sent their Olympic fighters into exile in rural Vietnam to prevent them from going off the rails in the run-up to next month's Olympic Games. The head of the country's boxing federation, Taweep Jantararoj, is concerned that his fighters would be lured into Bangkok's clubs and bars because of their celebrity status – boxing is the country's strongest Olympic sport.

"I'm keeping them in Vietnam right up until the Games, because I worry about what they will do at home," he said.

Taweep had already moved the team's training base to north-eastern Thailand, but his fighters soon discovered the local nightlife. "There was too much going on there, so we moved them to Vietnam. There is nothing for them to do there."

Somluck Kamsing, who became the country's first Olympic champion in 1996, blew his chances of repeating the feat in Sydney by skipping training to work on his acting and singing career.

The Athens gold medallist Manus Boonjumnong spent £300,000 worth of bonuses on alcohol and gambling, but has since turned to the monkhood to wean himself off his playboy lifestyle.

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