Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    BANGKOK, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Thailand is expected to win two gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Bangkok Post reported on Friday.

    The leading English newspaper quoted Suravudh Maharom, Chairman of the National Athletes' Preparation Committee, as saying that the Thai team was good enough to win two golds with their best hopes lying in boxing, taekwondo and weightlifting.

    "I am quite sure that we will win at least one gold in boxing," said Suravudh. "We should win one in either taekwondo or weightlifting."

    He said Thai taekwondo exponents and weightlifters could face tougher tasks than boxers as China was strong in the two sports. He added he was concerned that the weightlifting team might not know their opponents' actual records.

    Winning two golds would be a success for Thailand although they won three golds in Athens, he said. "Two gold medals would not be too bad," he said. "We should look at our overall performance rather than the number of medals."

    However, Suravudh believes Thailand, who won eight medals in Athens, can win up to 10 medals in Beijing.

    Suravudh said the athletes' preparation for the 2008 Games was much better than any previous Olympics.

    "One reason is that we can now make full use of sports science,"he said.

    Earlier, the National Sports Development Plan stated that Thailand should win five golds at the 2008 Olympics.

    Suravudh argued that Thailand could not have a squad strong enough to meet the target because the country did not have a consistent development plan.

    "We often struggle to find new faces to replace old athletes," he said. "It could become even worse in the next Olympics."

    A total of 51 athletes will march to Beijing in the next few days. All the 51 athletes include 15 in track and field, eight boxers, seven weightlifters, five shooters, four in Badminton, three in taekwondo, two each in fencing, windsurfing and swimming and one each in tennis, table tennis and cycling.