PAUL DRINKHALL has been named in the Great Britain squad for the European Olympic Qualifying Tournament next month.

Drinkhall, who is from Loftus in East Cleveland, will be attempting to secure a place at his third successive Olympic Games, having previously represented Team GB at London 2012 and Rio 2016, where he reached the last 16 of the singles tournament.

Next month’s qualifying tournament in Portugal, which will take place between February 10-14 is for qualification for the singles tournament at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

Great Britain missed out on qualifying for the team event in an earlier qualification competition last January.

Drinkhall is part of a GB squad for next month’s tournament which features the maximim four players that are permitted under the regulations.

The North-Easterner will be joined by English number one Liam Pitchford in the men’s event.

England’s female number one, Tin-Tin Ho, will be joined by Welsh number one Charlotte Carey in the women’s tournament.

After the European qualifying competition, there will be a further chance for players who have not qualified to book their places in Tokyo via the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The World qualifier will be staged at Doha, Qatar, between March 16-19.

Depending on what happens in that tournament, a final batch of places could then be allocated via the world rankings.

The final set of rankings published at the end of 2020 showed Drinkhall in 56th position with 4,660 ranking points.