She won three matches against higher-ranked opponents in a brave battle for the outside chance of a place at the 2008 games.

Complex qualifying rules and the sheer number of high-class internationals meant the British were never likely to be represented in Beijing.

But a series of fine performances in Budapest brought her close - she is the second reserve for a place in the Olympic women's singles on the International Table Tennis Federation's provisional list.

The Lillington star was the only GB player left on day four of the event, when she claimed 19th place overall. That came with a 3-0 win over Serb Gabriela Feher, who won all three of their previous meetings as juniors.

Earlier that day Sibley had a second meeting with Tetyana Sorochinskaya, who had beaten her in the initial qualifying group. The Ukranian number one repeated that 4-2 result.

Sibley had kept her Olympic hopes alive with a superb six-set win over Lithunanian number one Ruta Paskauskiene. The dream ended in the following match, with Russian number three Oksana Fadeeva triumphing in five sets to reach the last 16.

Prior to that Sibley saw off Spain's Sara Ramirez, who had beaten her England team-mate Joanna Parker, in seven battling sets.

Her other results were a victory against Ekaterina Ntoulaki of Greece in seven, a six-set win against Sweden's Malin Pattersson and that loss to Sorochinskaya.

Proud step-father John Bolitho said: "She just missed out, but she put in some great performances and beat players ranked higher than her and she'll be moving up in the rankings."