WALES’ top female table tennis player Charlotte Carey says she hasn’t given up hope of competing at the Olympic Games.

The 23-year-old from Ebbw Vale last week suffered a blow in her bid to make the plane for Tokyo 2020 as Great Britain’s women failed to come through Olympic team qualifying in Portugal.

Three-time Commonwealth Games star Carey and English duo Tin-Tin Ho and Maria Tsaptsinos fell at the first hurdle in Gondomar, losing 3-0 to a strong Spain side.

With the singles qualifiers to come, Carey still has a chance of travelling to Japan later this year, although it is notoriously difficult to secure one of the few places on offer.

However, Carey admits she doesn’t know yet whether any British players will be entered.

Even if it doesn’t happen for her this time around, the multiple Welsh champion has got Paris 2024 in her sights, as well as a fourth Commonwealths two years from now.

“Singles qualification for Tokyo is in April and May with European and then world qualifiers,” she said.

“It’s in GB’s hands if they decide to send any of us or not. Hopefully they will give us a chance to play some high-quality matches.”

She added: “I’ll definitely go for the next Olympics as I’ll still only be 27 when they come around.

“The Commonwealth Games are in two years and that breaks the gap between Tokyo and Paris.

“The Commonwealths are massive for me, I’ve been to three so far, and I’d love to win a medal there.

“I’ll keep trying for that, play as well as I can, and see how things go.”

Looking back on Portugal, Carey said: “It was disappointing but, at the same time, it was always going to be tough.

“We wanted to try and cause an upset because we were never there as favourites.

“If we had won the doubles, maybe it would have been a different story.

“It was good to play as Team GB, but the three of us had never played as a team before.

“We tried to play around with the order and see who would sit where.

“We were all willing to play against anyone and didn’t want to shy away from anything.

“I’d never played against Galia (Dvorak, singles opponent) before but I was ready for the challenge.”

It was during her match against Dvorak, one she lost by three games to nil, that Carey’s serve came under scrutiny from the Spanish umpire.

“I play tournaments all the time and never get called for serving illegally,” she added.

“At the end, I was so nervous about being called for it that I was just doing basic serves.”

Carey will now turn her attention to the German Open, club matches in Sweden, the Spanish League and Champions League in France, before the national championships at the end of February.