Kat Driscoll targeting place at Rio 2016 when she competes at World Trampoline Championships

Driscoll is one of four British women to have been selected to compete at the Worlds, which double as the first qualifying event for the 2016 Olympics. She will contest both the team and individual events, with the latter determining the first batch of automatic places for next summer.

An initial preliminary round will result in 24 competitors progressing to the semi-finals – with a maximum of three from each country – before a further round of jumping leaves eight athletes to progress to the final.

Those eight competitors will secure an Olympic place for their nation, with a maximum of two spots available to any one country.

Clearly, Driscoll would love to be leaving Odense with a first individual world title to her name. Of more importance to the 29-year-old, however, is that the goal of Olympic qualification is successfully realised.

“That’s the most important thing,” said Driscoll, who is based at West Rainton and a member of Apollo Trampoline Club in Washington. “Yes, it’s a World Championships and you obviously want to do as well as you can. But the most important thing is Rio qualification not individual glory.

HEAD OVER HEELS: Kat Driscoll, during one of her routines

“We’ve been training together as a team for a while now, and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a bit of internal competition. Three of us are doing the same level of difficulty in our voluntary routines, so there’s definitely been a bit of watching to see how people’s training has been going.

“But that rivalry is for another day. As long as we come away from the Worlds with our Olympic places guaranteed, then we can start fighting amongst ourselves for a place on the team after that.

“There’s one more chance to qualify at the Test event in Rio next year, but the ideal scenario is that we don’t have to worry about that because if you’re heading there without a place, you’re going to be under a massive amount of pressure.

“Ideally, we’d love to get two places in the bag this week. We had two girls in the top eight at the Worlds in 2013, so that would have got us two spots. In 2014, we came seventh and ninth. If you go off past years, we should be there or thereabouts.”

Driscoll will be joined by Bryony Page, Pamela Clark and Amanda Parker in next Thursday’s preliminary round, and while the quartet are closely grouped in the world rankings, the British number one’s extensive experience makes her the leader of the party.

Having successfully qualified for the 2012 Olympics in London, and only narrowly missed out on a place in the individual final when she finished in ninth, Driscoll has held her nerve in the most pressurised of situations before.

SOARING HIGH: Kat Driscoll

A fall at a recent World Cup event in France, which resulted in minor injuries to her elbow and wrist, disrupted her preparations, but the last two weeks of training have gone well and she will be travelling to Denmark in peak condition.

“I’m ready,” she said. “It might not always look that way in training, but I’m experienced enough to know when I’m peaking at the right time and I’m happy with where I’m at.

“Hopefully, my experiences at the Olympics and Worlds will help. People can watch me training and sometimes think, ‘Kat doesn’t look like she’s on it’, but when I get to the competitions, that’s when I come into my own.

“Maybe it’s just a maturity thing, but I’ve been to the last three World finals so I know that I’m more than capable of doing the same thing again. I back myself because I know that when the pressure is on, that’s when I’m at my best.”

Britain’s team success at the 2013 World Championships represents one of the biggest achievements of Driscoll’s career, but while there is an understandable desire to mount a strong defence of the title, the format of this year’s event means it is a secondary goal.

“It’s only the individual that counts towards Olympic qualification, so that’s what we’ve been focusing on,” she said. “The way the Worlds work, the team final is a couple of days before the individual semi-finals, and you have to do a single voluntary routine in both.

“So the way we’re looking at it is that the team event will be ideal practice for the individual. It would be great to do well, and the strength of the team means we’ll definitely have a chance.

“The Chinese girls have been incredible this season, and if they’re at their best, then as a team they’ll probably be untouchable. But we’re in there with the likes of Canada, Russia and Belarus as countries that could realistically challenge them for gold. Sometimes, countries hold a little bit back in reserve for the Worlds, so you’re never completely sure what you’re going to be up against.”