by Alex Hoad at the ExCeL Arena

GB sitting volleyball skipper Claire Harvey has already set her sights on the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio after the end of her London 2012 adventure at the ExCeL on Thursday morning.

Competing in their first Games and only 2.5 years after being introduced to the international sport, GB lost their play-off for 7 and 8 place against Japan in straight sets, to finish without a set in their five matches.

However that tells only half the story as they could so easily have won several during the tournament, narrowly missing out in a game of fine margins.

Indeed they led 23-20 in the opening set, only for the Japanese – who had beaten GB 3-0 in a close match in the group stage on Sunday – to win the final five points and secure a 25-23 win.

The second set followed a similar pattern with GB leading for much of it, only for their opponents to come strong at the end and take it 25-19, and with the game nearly up, it was a more comfortable 25-13 victory for Japan in set three.

Mum-of-two Harvey, 38, from Ashford, said: "This was always going to be a very tough tournament and it was all about gaining experience in this sort of arena, which you don't get anywhere else, and to take our sport into Rio.

“Volleyball England, the BPA and ParalympicsGB have been amazing in supporting us and getting us from a group of people who had never played volleyball before to where we are now in two and a half years.

“We are already looking ahead to Rio - we will have to qualify through Europe which is a very tough pool to play in and that is why it was so important to come here to gain the experience and play the competition we are going to have to face in Europe.”

She added: “It's time to regroup - we've got a lot of positives to take away but we've got a lot of hard work to do too."