by Alex Hoad at the ExCeL Arena

Captain Claire Harvey admitted to disappointment but tried to look at the positives after GB’s sitting volleyball side lost their final group game in straight sets against Japan.

In their first Paralympic Games GB have battled hard, but found the experience of some of the top teams in the world hard to deal with, finishing bottom of their group with three defeats from three against Ukraine, the Netherlands and now Japan.

Japan prevailed 25-11, 25-21, 25-14, though GB had enough chances to win the second set – which would have been a historic first – and had the match been levelled at 1-1, the raucous crowd of almost 10,000 in the ExCeL could have made the difference from then on.

A downcast Harvey, 38, said: “We tried our best but really we were out-defended and out-manoeuvred.

“We tried things but they were very, very fast at defending, amazingly fast actually, and sometimes it’s not meant to be.

“We weren’t ready for that level of manoeuvrability and defence really.”

The Gillingham-raised for Medway RFC player – paralysed in one leg after being struck by a car - added: “Obviously we’re disappointed, we came here with high hopes, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. All we can change is what happens in the next game.”

The mum of two, from Ashford, said GB could take some positives from the clash, saying: “We fought hard, we defended well at times. We learned a lot of things, we didn’t learn it quick enough, but we did learn it.

“We served better than we did in the previous game and received better too.”

However they can still secure a finish as high as fifth in the competition thanks to the ‘serpentine’ format of the classification stages.

They will face Brazil or Slovenia on Tuesday evening and the result will decide whether they enter the play-off for 5/6 or 7/8 on Thursday.

Harvey said: “Now we regroup, we learn the lessons and we focus on the play-off games.

“Brazil and Slovenia are both very good opposition. If it's Slovenia first they are very good volleyball players with a very good defensive game, it will be a fast game similar to Japan.

"That’s what we need to focus on now."