NORTH-EAST trampolinist Kat Driscoll has guaranteed Great Britain's women a place at next year's London Olympics, but the current world number one is not yet certain to fill it.

Driscoll, who has been based in West Rainton, near Sunderland, since leaving her native Kent seven years ago, will compete in the individual final at the World Trampolining and Tumbling Championships in Birmingham tomorrow after qualifying in seventh position in the preliminaries.

By making the top eight, Driscoll ensured that Britain's women will fill a slot in the Olympic trampolining programme in London next summer.

The squad had hoped to win two Olympic places, but with Laura Gallagher only finishing ninth in the preliminaries, Britain can no longer field more than one competitor at the Games.

January's Olympic test event effectively doubles as the British Olympic trials, and British Gymnastics performance director Tim Jones insists Driscoll's Olympics place is not a given.

"We're going to leave it pretty late to select our girl for the Games next year," said Jones. "While Kat qualified the place, the policy that we'll put out doesn't guarantee that Kat will be the person that goes.

"We're going to keep them all fighting it out as long as we can and hopefully we'll get a good result in London."

Nevertheless, provided she remains fit, it is hard to see the British selectors looking beyond 25-year-old Driscoll, who trains at Washington Leisure Centre under the tutelage of her husband, Gary Short, who is a former GB trampolinist.

Driscoll, who has produced a string of impressive performances in the last 12 months to shoot to the top of the world rankings, actually finished ninth in the preliminary tournament at Birmingham, but with each country only allowed to have one competitor in the final, a glut of Chinese qualifiers meant she was bumped up two positions.

She will start tomorrow's final as one of the favourites, having impressed with her compulsory routine at the qualifying stage.

She was the last British woman to compete, but remained rock solid on the centre spot. Her voluntary routine was less polished, but still enabled her to secure an Olympic place for Britain.

"We were all pretty nervous coming in to the arena, understandably, but we went out knowing we'd done enough training and were prepared," said Driscoll.

"My compulsory routine was around the score I was hoping for and what I have been performing throughout the season. My voluntary, I had a little mistake but recovered and finished the routine so it wasn't quite what I was hoping for but it was clean.

"Training at the arena has been great. I couldn't have asked for more - it was just a small mistake on the day. We're so proud of what we've done, and I'm proud of the other girls and what they've achieved."

As well as leading the individual world rankings having won the 2011 World Cup series, Driscoll also tops the non-Olympic world synchro rankings alongside her partner Amanda Parker.

She worked full-time for HSBC until last February, but left her job in order to devote more time to her trampolining. She now trains six days a week and will tomorrow attempt to become Britain's first world trampoline champion since Susan Shotton in 1984, six years before the sport made its Olympic debut in the Sydney Games.

"Knowing we've secured that spot and I'm in my first worlds final is fantastic," said Driscoll. "But now I want to make sure I do as well as I can in it."