Thanyapura Sports Hotel has pools, gyms, athletics tracks and stadiums. Australian triathlete Belinda Granger says 'it's like an Australian Institute of Sport that's open for everyone'. The tennis centre at the Thanyapura Sports Hotel in Phuket, Thailand. The pool, 600-seat grandstand and restaurant at the Thanyapura Sports Hotel in Phuket, Thailand. Gym equipment at the Thanyapura Sports Hotel in Phuket, Thailand. THE alarm rips open the eyes for a dawn bootcamp session with Cherie Blair's ex-personal trainer. The veranda outside the hotel room is already busy with triathletes carrying bikes downstairs for breakfast 50km away at an orphanage selling Phuket's most revered banana bread. Instead of towels and swimmers drying in Thailand's heat, the room balconies and veranda railings are draped with the shirts and socks of elite women's players competing in an International Tennis Federation tournament on the hotel's courts. The room next door is one of few still closed and quiet, fuelling speculation that inside might be a hotel regular like Ian Thorpe or his old rival Pieter van den Hoogenband, both fans of the Olympic pool's electronic timing system and underground observation window for coaches. But the inactivity in the four-star room probably means a guest is getting match fit for the vow of silence required by the Dalai Lama's translator, who runs the hotel meditation centre. One of the kickboxers would know the answer, but they're off getting a lesson from a former national champion - yes, of Thailand - at the hotel's Muay Thai ring. Warming up for bootcamp on the 500m cushioned athletics track around synthetic rugby and soccer pitches, guests debate whether the Thanyapura Sports Hotel leaves them feeling more like a character from Field of Dreams or a sugar-free Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The sole Australian wonders whether we're sleepwalking in one of the bush towns populated by athletes in Roy Slaven and HG Nelson's This Sporting Life - where the plumber is 1980s cricketer Rod McCurdy and Ron Quinton runs a community art class on how a jockey's whip can sculpt a horse, mid-race, into an ornamental flamingo for the garden. Thanyapura lets weekend warriors receive elite sports training alongside top athletes. The downside is the equipment is so good it will only expose your limitations. World-class Australian triathlete Belinda Granger, a Thanyapura regular, says as she parks her bike in a poolside bar: "It's like an Australian Institute of Sport that's open for everyone." The real bonus for average warriors of a certain age: as far as less deluded partners and kids are concerned, this place functions perfectly well as a Thai resort. It's the holiday that allows you to exercise until you've earned dessert at Sweet Time, a spread of treats served in a restaurant like any at a normal hotel. Thanyapura has a kids' club, although you could just as easily book the sprogs into a swimming, tennis or triathlon camp. If witching hour kicks in while dining at the restaurant, lock them in the room full of toys, beanbags and a TV at the far end of the restaurant. Don't be nervous; you can monitor them through the all-but soundproof window. Conventional Phuket - beaches, shopping, cocktails and island hopping - is nearby. Partners who are content to let Thailand's humidity produce a sweat without exercise need not know the family was steered to this resort for your sporting delusion. The only way your significant other will pick this as a pioneering sport hotel is by the bike-hanging hook in every room and the Sealy Posturepedic mattress, an athlete-sized Hollywood King. German tycoon Klaus Hebben has reportedly poured more than $100 million into this 23ha site under the hills of the Khao Phra Taew National Park. Hebben needed a house of learning to prepare his kids for the International Baccalaureate, so he built Phuket International Academy Day School in 2009. As a triathlete, he wanted the students to have sports facilities. The school grounds soon extended to floodlit basketball courts, Plexicushion tennis courts - as used in Rod Laver Arena for the Australian Open - gyms and a triple-jump pit. The 1500-seat grandstand at the athletics track, and a 600-seater by the pool, signal his confidence in producing champions. The meditation centre followed, along with an integrative health centre that offers massage, along with, of course, gear for altitude training and genetic testing for disease risk. A couple of years ago Hebben looked up from the nearby organic farm and figured that, being an entrepreneur, perhaps he could generate some revenue from all this kit. The Sport Hotel opened last year, spurring another rush of infrastructure - restaurants, wine cellar, sports bar, clothing shop and a discreet smoking area for the surprisingly high number of athletes who love a gasper. Thanyapura's nearest relative would be Spain's Club La Santa, though the Thai complex wants to provide a more rounded approach to health that involves work on the mind and diet. Staff have yet to work out whether the main earner will be elite athletes or punters prone to over-reach, so the two markets are learning to live together. Gesine Lehnert, a Phuket resident from New York, brought her sons, 11 and 13, to Thanyapura for a one-off triathlon session from Granger. "This place is like a giant dojo (martial arts training place)," Lehnert says. Everyone knows and supports each other. They help each other. A group of kids under 12 from a Victorian swimming club spent a week at Thanyapura while The Australian visited. They narrowly missed the Dutch swimming team, whose stint overlapped with a top squad from China, allowing the countries to swap training methods. Italy's glamour swimming couple, Federica Pellegrini and Filippo Magnini, posted a YouTube video about their stay. Granger and her husband, Justin, the best-known couple in triathlon, had Phuket as their favourite place to race after coming to the island for more than a decade. Thanyapura allows them to spend up to three months in Phuket preparing for events around the world. They can cycle without the "horrendous" potholes around their Noosa home and be in the pool or gyms within seconds. "We were blown away the minute we saw this place," says Belinda. Like many of the professionals who stay at Thanyapura, the Grangers sometimes agree to give a talk for punters in the sports bar or take a group of kids through some training. "It's easy for a professional athlete to give some time here," says Belinda. We're already all here hanging out together. 500m athletics track with long jump, high jump and triple jump 50m Olympic-standard swimming pool with electronic timing, ozone filtration and underneath observation window for coaches, plus a 25m pool International Rugby Board-standard artificial rugby pitch Four Plexicushion indoor tennis courts with a 600-seat grandstand, plus two Plexicushion outdoor courts, 1500-seat grandstand Limonta Soccer Pro FIFA-standard pitch 900sq.m fitness centre with latest Technogy equipment Studios for martial arts, yoga, pilates and dance and spin classes A five-night triathlon camp starts at 43,390 baht (about $1500) A five-night revamp of swimming technique starts at 40,575 baht