PAUL DRINKHALL helped England’s table tennis team flex their muscles ahead of January’s Olympic qualifiers as they reached the quarter-finals of the ITTF Team World Cup in Tokyo.

Competing in a test event for next summer’s Olympic competition in the Japanese capital, Drinkhall teamed up with Liam Pitchford, Sam Walker and Tom Jarvis to help England reach the last-eight, where they lost to Chinese Taipei.

Despite being ranked ninth of the 12 competing nations, the English trio topped their qualifying group after kicking off their campaign with an especially-notable victory over the number two seeds Japan.

They followed up that victory with a 3-0 success over Austria, with Drinkhall claiming a 3-0 win over World number 43 Daniel Habesohn in his singles rubber and teaming up with Jarvis to secure a 3-2 victory over Habesohn and Andreas Levenko in his doubles match.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist, who hails from Loftus in East Cleveland, teamed up with Jarvis again for the opening doubles game of the final, but the duo slipped to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Liao Cheng-Ting and Chen Chien-An.

Pitchford lost the opening singles against World number ten, Lin Yun-ju, before Drinkhall was also beaten 3-0 by Chien-An as Chinese Taipei confirmed their place in the quarter-finals.

Drinkhall is back in singles action this week in the Austria Open, with January’s Olympic qualifiers in Portugal the next competitive outing for the England team.

“It was a good tournament for us, having come through the group where we won two important matches,” said Drinkhall. “We just need to make some small changes in our game, and this is the positive we’re taking from this tournament.”