World number one Kat Driscoll believes her decision to give up work and focus fully on training is the reason behind her rise to the top of trampoline gymnastics.

The 25-year-old from Kent heads into Thursday’s World Championships in Birmingham at the summit of the individual and women’s synchro rankings, thanks to a year in which she claimed the British Championship title and a trio of podium finishes – including a gold – at the World Cup Series.

Until early 2010, Driscoll was balancing training with full-time work and after losing too much ground on her gymnastics progress, it was decided that if she was to maximise her remarkable talent and aim for Olympic gold next summer, something had to be sacrificed.

“I gave up work in February last year,” she explains. “I was working full-time for HSBC in Durham city centre and to get from there to training meant I was losing about an hour and a half a day just by travelling.

“It became even worse in the winter, particularly how bad the winter was last year.

“I felt I was missing far too much and I wasn’t able to access the strength and conditioning that I do now.

“That was the crucial point where I realised that if I was going to give everything up and go for the Olympics, it had to be then.”

And how it has paid off. As well as her aforementioned accolades, Driscoll heads to the World Championships as favourite for the title as well as joining an elite list of British athletes fancied for gold at London 2012.

However, entry is not yet assured for next summer’s showpiece event, but her place will be confirmed if she reaches the final in Birmingham.

“First and foremost, Olympic qualification is my main goal,” Driscoll states. “But to have the chance to perform at the World Championships on home soil is very exciting and will give us all a bit of an insight into competing in front of a home crowd.

“Our main rivals in Birmingham will be the Chinese,” she adds. “Their squad is very strong – as is ours – but they have a bigger team and potentially it could be any two of them that we will be fighting against. The Russians are also strong and are digging at our heels at the moment. But definitely the Chinese.”

Disregarding an enormous upset, Driscoll is expected to sail to Olympic qualification and preparations have already begun to optimise her chances of landing gold in London. The scoring process has been adapted where the height created during the routine will also count towards the overall score – and work is well underway.

“They have brought in a new element to competitive trampoline gymnastics called ‘time of flight’ where they add on a score according to how high your routine is and how long it takes,” she explains. “The routines we are working on now are definitely the ones I will be looking to compete with next summer.”

And where does she believe her routine will rank amongst her competitors?

“The difficulty of my routine will be right up there with the Chinese and Russian athletes,” she responds. “I am confident I will have very competitive routines.”

The traditional form of gymnastics – artistic gymnastics – has been an integral part of the Olympics ever since the birth of the modern Games in  1896 and has provided many great moments of sporting history. While trampoline gymnastics – introduced at Sydney 2000 – is a much more recent addition, it’s popularity amongst participants and spectators is on the rise.

And Driscoll believes London 2012 will offer the perfect platform to take the sport onto a new level.

“I have been on the British gymnastics website and there is a lot of talk about trampolining and lot of interest into what we’re up to,” she points out.

“We’ve had a really successful year, winning four individual medals and six synchro medals so we’ve certainly gone out there and represented. If we can carry that over to 2012 then everyone will have the chance to see how good we are.”

Driscoll is in good company within the British squad. Both Bryony Page and Emma Smith are ranked within the top ten, while Amanda Parker is her partner at the top of the synchro rankings. However, Driscoll – and more particularly her continued success – will play a central role in the continuing growth in popularity of trampoline gymnastics.