Driscoll yet to make decision on Rio 2016

Driscoll will compete for the northern region in Saturday's National Championships, with the following weekend's Northern Championships representing her final competitive outing of the year.

The 26-year-old, who is a member of the Apollo club in Washington, finished ninth at this summer's Olympics in London.

She has pledged to continue competing ahead of next year's World Championships in Bulgaria, but wants to see how the next 12 months go before committing herself to the pursuit of a place at Rio.

"I'm taking a little bit of time to get my head around things," said Driscoll, who is based at West Rainton. "The whole of this year has been so focused on the Olympics that it's only really now that I'm starting to turn my thoughts to the future.

"I've said that I want to compete in the Worlds next year, and then the following year it's the World Games in Colombia, which is basically the Olympics for synchro because they don't include synchro on the programme for the actual Olympics.

"It's still an ambition to compete in another Olympics, but I need to see how I feel about training and competing for another four years.

"At the moment, I'm planning on taking one year at a time, and I should have a better idea of where things are at the same time next year.

"By then, the London Olympics will just be a memory and I'll have been through a lot more weeks and months of training. If I'm still enjoying things, then Rio will be that much more realistic."

Driscoll left London this summer with mixed emotions. She made her Olympic debut in front of a packed crowd at the North Greenwich Arena, but missed out on a place in the final by only one position.

Nevertheless, the Olympic experience proved hugely enjoyable and she is able to reflect on a whirlwind few weeks with a huge sense of pride.

"It's only now that it's all starting to sink in to be honest," she said. "I kept on telling myself that it was just another competition, because that was the best way for me to handle the situation and make sure I was able to do my best.

"All the way through, I wasn't really allowing myself to appreciate the enormity of it all, so it's only really now, a few months later, that all of that is beginning to seem real. I'm proud of what I did.

"I know that whatever else happens, it's going to be a big part of my life now. I get introduced to people as, 'Kat, who went to the Olympics'. That's weird.

"It's fantastic that people recognise that and are taking enough of an interest in trampolining to be interested in the fact that I competed for my country at the Olympic Games. But at the same time, I can't let that define me for the rest of my life."

As part of the process of moving on, Driscoll was determined to return to competition as quickly as possible after the Games.

She was in Bulgaria at the start of the month competing in a World Cup event, and while her training had inevitably been interrupted by her post-Olympic commitments, she was still able to claim a silver medal in the individual competition and a bronze in the synchro with her partner, Amanda Parker.

"I didn't go there with high expectations because I hadn't been able to do any proper training sessions, but things went really well," she said.

"I wanted to go out there because, at the moment, there isn't another World Cup scheduled until next October. I didn't want to be out of the loop for that long.

"I went with fairly low ambitions, but came second in the final by a tenth of a point. I didn't think it was a great routine, so I was absolutely buzzing."

The pressure will be less intense this weekend, but Driscoll is determined to put on a show in her own backyard.

"It's quite a big thing to have the nationals in South Shields, so I want to do the North-East proud," she said.

"I'm competing for the region, and then I've got the Northern Championships after that. I want to finish 2012 in style."