Great Britain's Olympic hopefuls will be given a tough test before their trip to Beijing this summer after Cuba accepted an invitation for a full international match in London in May. Britain's progress in the past year means that, with one qualifying event remaining, they have seven representatives at this summer's Games - two more than their combined total in the past three Olympics - but no nation can hold a candle to Cuba in terms of Olympic success in the ring.

Cuba have finished top of the medals table in all but one of the Olympics they have attended since 1972 - the only time they did not was in Montreal in 1976, when they were denied by a United States squad that included the Spinks brothers, Leon and Michael, and Ray Leonard.

The match is likely to take place on May 30 at Goresbrook Leisure Centre in Dagenham, East London, a short distance from ExCeL, which will host the boxing at the London Games in 2012. By then, Terry Edwards, the Britain head coach, believes that the home nation could be matching Cuba.

“With one tournament to go, Cuba have qualified eight boxers and we have qualified seven,” Edwards said. “Last time, Cuba had a full team [of 11 boxers] and we had one - that shows how far we have come. By 2012, we could be the new Cuba.

“This success hasn't happened overnight. The young lads who are going to Beijing have been in our development programme for a number of years and the funding we have received from UK Sport has enabled us to level out the playing field with some of the traditionally stronger nations.

“I've been involved in amateur boxing for 30 years, I know the standard that is needed and we are right up there now. I'm optimistic we can still get a full team to Beijing and then do well there. These boys had the dream of getting to the Olympic Games, now we've got to get them on the podium.”

Cuba won eight medals, including five golds, in Athens in 2004, but have suffered a string of defections in the past 12 months. This led to them boycotting last November's World Championships in Chicago, where England won three medals, including their first gold, thanks to Frankie Gavin, the lightweight.

Britain's last chance to assemble a full team for Beijing comes at a tournament in Athens next month, when among those competing in the four remaining weight divisions available are two Commonwealth Games gold-medal winners - David Price, the super-heavyweight, and Stephen Smith, the featherweight.

Price, who is rated as a strong gold-medal hope if he can qualify for Beijing, is unlucky not to have already guaranteed his place. He had to pull out of the World Championships because of a broken hand before his quarter-final, when he might have booked his place in China. At the second qualifying event, in Italy last month, he stopped his first three opponents before being controversially outpointed, despite being ahead on three of the five judges' scorecards. His opponent was then thrown out of the tournament for being ineligible, but organisers drew lots to choose his replacement, rather than give the spot to Price, and the 6ft 8in Liverpudlian missed out.

“David was very disappointed,” Edwards said. “But this team is like a band of brothers and they all rallied around him. He's raring to go now.”

After the Athens qualifier, Britain will compete in a multinations tournament in Helsinki before a week-long trip to a holding camp in Macau. The match against Cuba will come at the end of a training camp in London, which will allow the team to train alongside the Cubans, as well as boxers from France and Bulgaria.

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