Olympic Dreams - On shoot with Drinkhall

BBC's Olympic Dreams is following some of GB's stars as they aim for the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Table tennis players Paul Drinkhall and Darius Knight are involved again in the new series

After losing the National Championships final, Drinkhall, GB's number one, heads to Nantes for the European Table Tennis qualifying tournament in early April with an Olympic place up for grabs

Drinkhall (world rank 194) needs a top-11 finish to qualify. Europe's top 128 men and women are playing, with the top two from each group progressing to the first round. Olympic Dreams saw the action

A full house sees Drinkhall lose his opener 4-2 to France's Christophe Legout (world rank 62). Coach Liu Jia-Yi watches Drinkhall hit back to beat Spain's Victor Sanchez (world rank 241) in a seven-set thriller

In a must-win game, Drinkhall beats world number 70 Slobodan Grujic 4-0 to make the last 32. He says: "I had nothing to lose, I tried to play my game and I played probably the best I've ever played."

Drinkhall (left) takes time out from his busy schedule to catch up with Gavin Rumgay and his other GB team-mates. Joanna Parker, Kelly Sibley and Adam Robertson were also playing in Nantes

Drinkhall does brilliantly, but is edged out 4-3 by France's Damien Eloi, the world's 41st best player. Players have three chances to progress though, so next up is Poland's Daniel Gorak (world rank 102)

Stamina is crucial in this five-day gruelling tournament and tiredness is creeping in. Drinkhall loses 4-1. It's last chance saloon, but Russian Fedor Kuzmin (world rank 82) is too strong and wins 4-2. It's all over

Three more Olympic spots were available in May's world qualifying tournament in Budapest, but Drinkhall just missed out. His dream of conquering London 2012 lives on though

Back

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Next