The closing World Olympic condition competition in Doha, held in Qatar, ended in distress for the Great British Olympic hopefuls as none of the six-strong crew managed to seal a position at London 2012.

Britain’s major hopes rested with the men’s triumvirate of Paul Drinkhall, Liam Pitchford and Andrew Baggaley who went in hunt of securing one of the two places obtainable in Doha.

However, defeats for Pitchford – against Italian Mihai Bobocica – Baggaley, who lost out to Dane Allan Bentsen and Drinkhall – toppled by Spaniard Carlos Machado – seemed to have ruined their campaigns in the Middle East.

The effect means that the 10 shortlisted players for the Olympic will have to remain for the host allocation announcement, due to be complete by the British Table Tennis Federation and the British Olympic Authority on May 22.

Luckily, for British table tennis, they had by now been owed a men’s and women’s singles and team spot at London 2012 so there will be a host attendance at the 30th Olympiad come the institute of the event in July.