Kunze said that London 2012's request that the medallists at the Trampoline World Championships held in Birmingham should take part in next January's Olympic test event, "London Prepares", will probably mean that no place will be available to Britain's highest placed male trampolinist, Luke Strong (pictured right with Nathan Bailey).

"That is the problem with the test event and the qualification," Kunze said.

"That is the problem from the beginning.

"If they do something like this then the organiser of course wants to have local people and the medallists, how can they advertise it otherwise?"

Strong, Britain's highest-place competitor, will be bumped out of the London Prepares event if any of the three medallists at these World Championships take up their invitation to compete, which will not become clear until the end of this month.

A lack of clarity in the framing of the rules meant that Britain's men thought they had done enough in the National Indoor Arena to qualify for the Olympic test event, which would be their last chance to qualify for London 2012.

Kunze said the sport's Olympic qualification process will undergo an overhaul to make it less complicated following the confusion.

British Gymnastics Olympic performance director Tim Jones said: "What we have learnt over the past two days is that the qualification process for the test event is extremely complex.

"We have now clarified that the three individual medallists from this World Championship are included in the 16 gymnasts invited to compete at the test event, and are not an addition.

"Based on this clarification it is now apparent that Great Britain will not be represented at the Olympic test event by an individual male.

"Whilst this is disappointing, we remain buoyed by the great news that Katherine Driscoll (pictured below) has qualified a place for Great Britain at London 2012."


Kunze told PA Sport that the relevant ruling would be urgently redrafted.

"We will write a new one, I definitely know we will write a new one because I know there was a lot of confusion with the federations," he said.

"The people could have known earlier that they had a misunderstanding.

"Only now when it really comes to the places then they are all of a sudden confused, and of course everyone wishes the best for his own country.

"Next time we will ask somebody to write it who is a native English speaker.

"It should be a clearer system in the future."

Kunze also said that the merging of the second round of Olympic qualification and the test event came after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided a second Olympic qualification was required.

Asked if Olympic qualification and test events should be kept separate, Kunze added: "I could imagine better qualification, yes.

"We sure will think about [changing] it and also the criteria.

"For this cycle of course we will not change it, but for the next cycle.

"We also don't know if the next Olympic organiser will say yes to this test event or to the second qualification."

Driscoll's gamble in yesterday's individual final of the Trampoline World Championships failed to pay off as she went for broke but dropped out of medal contention after having to end her routine early.


But Britain's world number one (pictured right), who has won gold, silver and bronze in this year's World Cup series, still finished on a high at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham after achieving her main ambition of qualifying for the London 2012 Games – which she did by becoming one of the eight qualifiers for the final – and also taking a team silver and a synchronised bronze with her partner Amanda Parker (left).

"I knew that in the final if I wanted to be in with a medal chance I had to go out there and nail a perfect routine so I really went for it and unfortunately today it didn't pay off," said the 25-year-old Chatham-born athlete, who now trains full-time at the Washington Leisure Centre in Tyne and Wear after giving up a job at HSBC bank.

"Overall I'm really happy with the Championships," she added.

"The key aim was to qualify an Olympic spot for Great Britain which I managed to do, and to then go on and win the team silver and synchro bronze was a fantastic bonus."

Driscoll, who had finished seventh of the eight qualifiers, finished eighth with 11.505 points in a final won by He Wenna of China with 56.275.

Rosannagh MacLennan of Canada claimed silver with 55.360, and Li Dan of China took bronze with 55.330.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
November 2011: Mike Rowbottom - Will trampolining be the new curling at London 2012?
November 2011: Trampolinist Driscoll earns London 2012 place in World Championship final