SOUTHAMPTON Sports Aerobics Club have produced their first British champion after two success-laden weekends.

Ironically, 16-year-old Gene Powers was one of the lesser lights at the Southern Region Championships where a mistake dropped her back to fifth place.

But that just made her doubly determined to succeed at the British Championships where a stunning 105-second routine of highly skilled and entertaining dance and gymnastics skills saw her crowned the undisputed queen of the British under-18s.

Fair Oak's Amie Loveridge struck Southern Region gold in the under-14 age-group, while fellow 12-year-old Hayley Carter from Southampton smiled her way through an equally energetic routine to take silver.

The duo then combined for a superbly sychronised pairs routine that gained them second place in the under-14 category.

Competition was extremely fierce at under-14 level in the British Championships but again Loveridge and Carter excelled. They finished fifth and sixth individually and capped the weekend with a brilliant bronze in the pairs.

All three girls have been training for a year with coach Sarah Samuel - a former member of the Great Britain Sports Aerobic 6 Team - at the Deanery Sports Centre, home of the Southampton Amateur Gymnastics Club.

The Southampton Sports Aerobics Club was established in 1999 under the SAGC umbrella and currently trains twice a week.

Sports aerobics is the newest branch of the British gymnastic disciplines and is judged on artistic interpretation of the music, execution of the routine and difficulty of the skills performed.

As with ice-skating, there are required moves and competitors have to perform at least one from each of the following groups - dynamic strength, static strength, jumps leaps and power, kicks, balance and flexibility.

To find out more about the sport or how to join Southampton Sports Aerobics Club ring SAGC on 023 8063 8915.