Eastleigh, located in Hampshire, hosted the first Grade 1 competition of 2007.  This Grade 1 South event took place on March 3-4, 2007.

Contrary to what the detailed results could lead to believe and what our initial understanding was, the scores were reset for the finals. 

The men's competition saw a suspenseful face off between 2006 British Champion Simon Milnes (Kirklees Rebound) and 2006 British Championship silver medalist James Higgins (NTGA - pictured on the right).  In the final, Milnes made a strong push, delivering the best routine of the final (38.60 pts with a 16.00 pt tariff).  Higgins, who had dominated the preliminaries thanks to his new 14.50 pt tariff, almost resisted Milnes' strong push.   Higgins obtained 38.00 pts in the final (105.10 pt overall score versus 104.80 pts for Milnes) and had to settle for the silver medal.  Higgins is a former winner of the World Age Group Competition (in 1996 in the 11-12 age group), who returned to competition last year after a lenghty break.  In the final of Eastleigh's Grade 1 competition, British international Gary Smith stepped up his difficulty to 15.20 pts to capture the bronze medal with 36.70 pts.  Steve Walsh (35.20 pts) and Andrew Freeman (35.10 pts) followed.  British international Mark Alexander failed to complete his optional in the preliminaries.

In a women's competition where 6-time British Champion Claire Wright did not compete, Olympian Jaime Moore (pictured on the left) dominated her rivals with 36.00 pts in the final (100.20 pts overall).  Moore is a teammate of Higgins at NTGA where they are coached by Tracy Whittaker-Smith.  In Eastleigh, Moore relied on the quality of her execution and a solid tariff (12.50 pts) to prevail.  Kate Driscroll (Apollo) took the silver medal with 34.40 pts (96.50 pts overall after performing a 12.90 pt tariff in the preliminaries).  Danielle Pietruszka (32.10 pts) joined Moore and Driscoll at the award ceremony.  Japanese international Hiroi Tokuma finished 4th.      

The Over 19 age group competition was won by Lauren Allen (34.60 pts) over 2004 European Youth Champion Hannah Lewis (31.90 pts) in the women's, and by Graham Williams in the men's. 

The Under 19 age group competition saw the victory of 2005 International Age Group Competition winner (15-16 age group) Tom Lewis (Olga), who is Hannah Lewis' brother, with 37.30 pts (100.20 pts overall).  Despite an average first routine, Lewis bounced back with two high quality optionals (37.80 pts and 37.30 pts with a 14.50 pt tariff).  Jack Helme also did well, finishing in 2nd place with 35.70 pts thanks to a 14.10 pt tariff.  Matthew Wright (35.30 pts) and Michael Freeman (34.40 pts) followed.  In the women's Under 19 event, Broyny Page impressed with a great performance.  Page took the gold medal with 34.30 pts in the final thanks to a solid 12.40 pt tariff. 

The Under 17 age group saw victories of Bradley Hampson (34.60 pts with a 12.10 pt tariff) and Emma Smith (33.40 pts with an 11.20 pt tariff), who edged Katy Ianson. 

AcrobaticSports.com would like to thank Tracy Whittaker-Smith for correcting the mistakes contained in our initial report.

Link to the detailed results