PAUL DRINKHALL is turning his attention to qualifying for the Rio Olympics after bagging his first national men’s singles title since 2012.

Drinkhall, who is from Loftus, defeated England team-mate Sam Walker in the final of the PG Mutual National Championships in Hatfield to win the title for the fifth time in his career.

Despite losing the first game, Drinkhall was in control for most of the final, and his 4-2 victory was followed by another success in the men’s doubles. The North-Easterner teamed up with Liam Pitchford to secure a resounding 3-0 success over Chris Doran and Mike O’Driscoll.

Drinkhall said: “It’s great to win, obviously after three years and for a fifth time. It feels just as good as the others, if not better to get it back. Hopefully, I can get a few more in the future.

“I think he played tactically better in the fourth game, but apart from that I felt I was tactically on top, better and stronger and could find a way to keep him out.

“The first set I lost from 9-5 up, which was a shame. If I’d been able to see it out, the match might have been more comfortable.”

On his doubles success, Drinkhall added: “Danny Reed (who is from Hutton Rudby) pulled out injured, which left a chunk out of the draw. We were massive favourites, but it’s still good to come through. We played pretty well and it’s good to get another title.”

The next target for Drinkhall in a busy period of the season is the European qualifying event for the Olympics in Istanbul at the start of next month.

He said: “I’ve got a week in England now, training physically but also recovering from (the World Championships in) Kuala Lumpur because I’ve not really had time for that, and then we’ve got a training camp in Sweden before we go to Istanbul.”

The qualifying event is from April 6-10, with ten qualifying places up for grabs. If Drinkhall does not make it, there will still be an opportunity to qualifying by virtue of his world ranking.

Thornaby’s Karina Le Fevre was runner-up in the women’s doubles at the National Championships as she and partner Emma Vickers were beaten 3-1 by defending champions Tin-Tin Ho and Maria Tsaptsinos.

Le Fevre was knocked out in the women’s singles in the quarter-finals by number one seed Kelly Sibley, although she had her chances before losing 4-2.

She said: “I think I’m happy overall with the tournament, but I also feel I missed chances against Kelly, to go 3-1 up, and that could have changed the game. But I played well and it’s small things at that level.”