Great Britain’s top-ranked table tennis player Paul Drinkhall may look around himself during this week’s Rio 2016 Olympic test event and feel like the odd one out. Among the 44 competitors at the Aquece Rio International Table Tennis Tournament, the world no.57 and Commnwealth Games champion is the only non-South American.

The majority of entrants are Brazilian, while some of the leading players from Argentina and Chile are also here. However, Drinkhall remains unfazed and focused on the job at hand. “I’m very happy to be here, I’m here to play a tournament and it does’t matter who else is here, I’m just trying to win,” he told rio2016.com. “My goal is to qualify for Rio next year so it’s great to come here and experience what the city is like.” 

Indeed, Drinkhall was clearly already feeling at home almost as soon as he arrived in Rio, as his Facebook post below shows:

The table tennis test event starts at Riocentro Pavilion 4 on Wednesday (18 July) and will run until Saturday, featuring all four Olympic events: singles and team contests in both genders.

Brazil’s leading player Gustavo Tsuboi, who is currently ranked 41st in the world, was forced to withdraw from the tournament on Wednesday due to injury. That leaves Thiago Monteiro, currently rated 123rd in the world, as Brazil’s highest-ranked player at the tournament. The 34-year-old has competed in three Olympic Games (Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012) and has won four gold, one silver and three bronze medals at five Pan-American Games.

Thiago Monteiro won team gold at the Toronto 2015 Pan-American Games (Photo: Buda Mendes/STF/Getty Images)

In the women’s tournament, Brazilian duo Caroline Kumahara and Gui Lin – who both played at the London 2012 Olympic Games and have been Latin American champions – are likely to battle for top spot on the podium. Hot on their heels is 15-year-old Bruna Takahashi, who won the world cadets title last month.

Rio 2016 will have about 100 staff working at the test event, with results management, the competition area and workforce operations the main focus of testing. Although public access is restricted, there will be 700 seats for invited guests, including those who won tickets at Monday’s event at Rio’s main railway station, where members of the public took on professional players (see video below):

The singles events will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, with the team competitions contested on Friday and Saturday.

Caroline Kumahara in action at the London 2012 Games (Photo: Getty Images/Feng Li)

Following the boccia test event that finished on Saturday (14 November), table tennis is the second competition in the second wave of Rio 2016 test events. Next up are hockey, badminton and canoe slalom, all scheduled for next week.

This article was updated on 18 November to include the withdrawal of Gustavo Tsuboi.