Hareb convincingly won her first round match up however the win came at a cost, Hareb injuring her leg after showing full commitment ending a wave on the shallow sand shore-break.

“I finished my third turn on this wave and all of a sudden the beach was right there” said Hareb of her predicament.  “So I stepped off my board on my left leg, I am not sure if I have torn a muscle or it was bad cramp but my leg just tightened up super tight” added Hareb.

Hareb already had a convincing lead scoring a 12.50 point total heat score on her first two waves. 

Determined to get back out there Hareb tried to catch another wave but as soon as she stood up she knew she could not surf and exited the water with more than five minutes remaining in the 20 minute heat.

Hareb received medical attention at the beach including an injection to ease the pain.  With a round two match up likely on day two, there is no way Hareb will let the untimely mishap keep her out of the water.

“No way will I forfeit my next heat – there are too many heats to surf in the repechage rounds.  I would prefer to get another injection so that I feel less pain while out in the water” said Hareb of the prospect of forgoing her next heat and concentrating on the repechage rounds in the double elimination format and giving her leg an extra day to heal.

Hareb’s seven team mates all placed second in their heats to progress through to the second round with a clean slate.  The Quiksilver New Zealand Surfing Team is one of only four out of 27 nations to have all surfers remaining in the qualifying rounds.

Zen Wallis - Image ISA

The Open Men’s Division saw some challenging conditions throughout the day that kept big scores at a premium.  All four Kiwi’s placed second with Tane Wallis (Piha) top scoring thanks to a good early start in his heat and a late 6.0 point ride to finish off.

Tane’s older brother Zen, a first time New Zealand representative also placed second fighting it out in tough conditions scoring an 8.43 point total heat score to finish behind the American surfer.

The men’s division was rounded out by Otago University student JC Susan of Mount Maunganui and the youngest team member Ben Poulter (Rag) placing second in their heats to keep the slate clean.

In the Men’s Longboard Division it was Phil Morris (Auck) who shined through scoring 11.60 for an easy second placing behind day one stand out Taylor Jensen (USA).  Matt Cockayne (Auck) also placed second in his heat to move through to the second round.

The team endured an arduous three days of travel to get to Panama but have been relishing the 30 degree heat and clean 1.0m – 1.5m waves in bath temperature water that are scattered along the coastline.  All eight team members are visiting Panama for the first time.

The New Zealand team placed seventh from 31 nations in 2010.  The ranking was the highest achieved by the New Zealand Team in the past decade.  The 2011 team will be out to surpass that excellent result.

Parade of Nations - Image ISA	Team Photo - Image ISA
Sands Ceremony - Image ISA	Grace Spiers - Image ISA / Rommel
Haka - Image ISA	Support Crew - Image ISA

Please see below for the results from day one of the 2011 Billabong ISA World Surfing Games being held in Playa Venao, Panama from the 25^th June – 5^th of July.

Open Men’s Qualifying Round 1
Heat 7
1, 10.77, Chase Wilson, USA, 2, 9.83, Tane Wallis, NZL, 3, 6.87, Gefre Lima, GUA, 4, 3.40, Cyril Inauen, SWI
Heat 11
1, 9.60, Evan Thompson, USA, 2, 8.43, Zen Wallis, NZL, 3, 4.47, Mario Vega, GUA, 4, 1.23, Urs Emmenegger, SWI
Heat 15
1, 9.60, Matt Pagan, USA, 2, 8.23, JC Susan, NZL, 3, 5.67, Amos Rivera, GUA, 4, 4.53, Swen Zaugg, SWI
Heat 19
1, 12.83, Chris Waring, USA, 2, 7.37, Ben Poulter, NZL, 3, 5.90, Cristian Mendez, GUA, 4, 3.77, Stefan Vogel, SWI

Open Men’s Qualifying Round 2 (Yet to be surfed)
Heat 4
Anthony Fillingim, CRI, Carlos Mario Zapata, PER, Llewellyn Wittaker, RSA, Tane Wallis, NZL
Heat 6
Israel Barona, ECU, Santiago Muniz, ARG, Rafael Pereira, VEN, Zen Wallis, NZL
Heat 8
Ruda Carvalho, BRA, Martin Passeri, ARG, Justin Mujica, VEN, JC Susan, NZL
Heat 10
Michael Rodrigues, BRA, Manuel Selman, CHI, Francisco Bellorin, VEN, Ben Poulter, NZL


Open Women’s Qualifying Round 1
Heat 1
1, 11.34, Kaleigh Gilchrist, USA, 2, 4.70, Grace Spiers, NZL, 3, 3.73, Noemi Centeno, SAL, 4, 3.26, Virginia Bartolome, GUA
Heat 8
1, 12.50, Paige Hareb, NZL, 2, 5.63, Tal Saporta, ISR, 3, 4.57, Leah Oke, CAN, 4, 0.00, Lani Doherty, USA

Open Women’s Qualifying Round 2 (Yet to be surfed)
Heat 2
Nikita Robb, RSA, Grace Spiers, NZL, Anali Gomez, PER, Leilani McGonagle, CRI
Heat 4
Silvana Lima, BRA, Pamela Verboonen, MEX, Paige Hareb, NZL, Tanika Hoffman, RSA


Men’s Longboard Qualifying Round 1
Heat 1
1, 15.66, Toni Silvagni, USA, 2, 8.34, Matt Cockayne, NZL, 3, 7.06, Stefan Vogel, SWI, 4, 5.00, Henry Ortega, GUA
Heat 8
1, 14.94, Taylor Jensen, USA, 2, 11.60, Phil Morris, NZL, 3, 3.84, Michael Zaugg, SWI, 4, 3.10, Obed Rivera, GUA

Men’s Longboard Qualifying Round 2 (Yet to be surfed)
Heat 2
Matthew Moir, RSA, Matt Cockayne, NZL, Martin Perez, ARG, Cristian Santamaria, CRI
Heat 3
Piccolo Clemente, PER, Anthony Flores, CRI, Justin Bing, RSA, Phil Morris, NZL

Day two will commence at 1:00am Tuesday (New Zealand time) with Open Men’s and Women’s heats first up followed by the Men’s Longboard Division at approx 5.00am.  

About International Surfing Association (ISA)
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for surfing, bodyboarding, SUP and surfriding.  It was originally founded as the International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running world championships since 1964, and the Junior World Championships since 1980.

The event will be broadcast live over the net via the International Surfing Association website.  Media releases on the team’s performance will be distributed daily throughout the event and posted on the Surfing New Zealand website.

Further Information
For further information on the Quiksilver New Zealand Surfing Team please contact Surfing New Zealand’s Ben Kennings on 021 2278732 or email benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz.

Imagery
High resolution action images of team members will be available to media free of charge upon request.

Surfing New Zealand Newsletter
If you want to keep updated with surfing information delivered right to your inbox then sign up to the SNZ Newsletter.

Follow Surfing New Zealand
Follow Surfing New Zealand via the SNZ Facebook and SNZ Twitter.

Surfing New Zealand are proudly partnered by:

SOL
Hyundai
SPARC
Smokefree

Ends