Hopes of glory for Kat Driscoll ended on Saturday Pic:Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

by Alex Hoad at the Olympic Games

Kat Driscoll admitted she felt 'horrible' after suffering a heartbreaking exit from the trampolining competition in the preliminary round at the North Greenwich Arena on Saturday afternoon.

The Walderslade-born star's fate was decided by the final jump of the competition, and there was controversy.

With the top-eight in the leaderboard after two routines set to go through to the final, the same afternoon, Driscoll sat in eighth place before American jumper Savannah Vinsant took to the trampoline for her second routine.

However despite the American appearing to wander out of position during her routine, which generally sees competitors marked well down, it did not prevent her from scoring 54.955 - which took her to seventh overall.

It left Driscoll ninth, just 0.010 behind Russian Victoria Voronina, and dashed her dream of becoming the first British woman to compete in an Olympic trampoline final.

A distraught Driscoll said: "I feel like I should have been in the final, but never mind.

"I don't know. You hope you've done enough and then you have to sit and watch and hope something comes of it.

"To finish ninth when the top eight make the final is a horrible position to be in."

Kat's first routine scored 46.335, which was only good enough for 12th out of the 16 competitors at the half-way stage.

However the former Rochester Grammar School for Girls pupil produced an assured performance in her second, challenging personal routine, which was error free and received 54.650 - sixth heighest in the entire field.

Despite missing out on the final, it was still a historic display, as Driscoll became the highest-ranked Brit in Olympic trampoline history, beating Claire Wright's 10th-place in Beijing four years ago.

Driscoll said: "It is the highest finish we've had in the Olympics for a woman but it's so disappointing to be less than a tenth."

She added: "The crowd were fantastic. To compete in front of them was an honour. I'll never get that back, a fantastic thing to be a part of."

Kat Driscoll waves goodbye on Saturday Pic: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire