IN 2012, Kat Driscoll achieved her dream of competing at the Olympic Games. Four years later, she realised her ambition of qualifying for an Olympic final.

Now, with the Tokyo Olympics just a little over 18 months away, the North-East trampolinist is setting her sights on a new goal.

“If I can make it to Tokyo, I don’t want to be going just to make the numbers up,” said Driscoll. “It’s amazing to compete at an Olympics, but in some respects, I’ve been there and done that. If I’m going to Tokyo, I want to be going to get a medal.”

On the evidence of last month’s World Championships, that dream is very much alive. Competing in her fifth World Championship final, Driscoll finished a hugely-creditable seventh despite being the oldest trampolinist in the field.

She was the only British female to make the final, outperforming Rio silver medallist Bryony Page along the way, and confirmed her continued place amongst the world’s elite.

In the wake of the Rio Games, she questioned whether she still had the motivation and physical capability to endure the training demands that are placed on an Olympic trampolinist. By the time the Tokyo Games arrive, she will be 34, and a series of injury niggles throughout last season confirmed that her body is not getting any younger.

Her desire to succeed remains as insatiable as ever though, and while she was slightly disappointed not to have added to her major medal haul at the Worlds, she was satisfied with her performances in St Petersburg.

“It shows I’m still right up there,” she said. “And at this stage of the (Olympic) cycle, that’s really the most important thing.

“It’s been a strange year because I did really well at the Europeans at the start of the season, but then I had a few competitions where things weren’t quite right. I did okay at the British Champs, but I’d fallen at the two World Cups before that, and that’s really unusual for me.

“Because of that, I didn’t really know what to expect going into the Worlds, so to have put in some really solid routines is a definite step forward. I’ve had two good majors this year with the Europeans and the Worlds, and I feel like I’m in good shape heading into 2019, which is going to be a massive year for Olympic qualification.”

Having qualified as part of the top 24 from the prelims, Driscoll produced an excellent semi-final display to book one of the eight slots in the final.

That left her with a decision to make in the hour-and-a-half between the semi-final and final. Should she stick with the routine that had served her so well in the semis, or up the difficulty rate despite only having had minimal preparation time with an entirely new routine?

In the end she went with the former option, and while that was always going to limit the likelihood of her claiming a medal, it means she still has new moves under her sleeve as she prepares for next season.

“The sport moves on all the time, so you can’t stand still,” said Driscoll. “I’ve been trying a new routine with an increased difficulty level, but I hadn’t had the chance to really test it under pressure.

“It would have been easy to give it a go in the final, but having worked so hard to get to the final, I didn’t want to throw away the chance of putting in a really solid performance.

“I went with what I’d class as a safer routine, and although it wasn’t perfect, I was fairly happy with how I performed. I know I can nail that routine no problem, so it’s exciting to think how much better I could be if I can work on perfecting a more difficult routine. That’s the challenge over the winter – hopefully it’ll be ready to go at the start of next year.”

The next 12 months will be a pivotal period in terms of Olympic qualification, with the British team hoping to secure two spots for the Games in 2020. One of those slots will be determined at next year’s World Championships in Tokyo, a competition that will effectively be a dress rehearsal for the following year’s Olympics, and the other will be decided by performances throughout the year-long World Cup series.

Driscoll will be competing against rivals from across the world as she looks to secure as many British places as possible, but will also be attempting to position herself ahead of Page and Laura Gallagher in the domestic rankings.

“It’s such a competitive sport at the minute,” she said. “The levels have definitely gone up. People who were beating fairly easily in Rio have really improved, so we have to make sure that we’re improving to stay ahead of them.

“That’s the challenge, and then the competition within the British team is also really intense. It’s going to be tough to make the Olympics, but that’s the kind of challenge I usually thrive on. It’s years like next year, when everything’s on the line, that I really enjoy.”

To assist her chances of making a third Olympics, Driscoll is in the process of relocating from her home in West Rainton to a new base close to British Gymnastics’ high-performance base at Lilleshall.

“The travelling was just becoming too much,” said Driscoll, who will continue to be affiliated to the Apollo Trampoline Club in Washington. “I’m having to spend a lot more time in Lilleshall now, so it didn’t make sense to be spending so much of the week going up and down the motorway.

“I’ve loved training in the hall in Washington, but there just came a point where it wasn’t really sustainable any more. Hopefully, making the move now will give me the best possible chance of being in top shape for Tokyo.”