Paige Hareb - Image ISA/Watts

Paige Hareb (Tara) continues to shine for the Quiksilver New Zealand Surfing Team competing at the 2011 Billabong ISA World Surfing Games being held in Panama.

Hareb moved through to the last six surfers of the Open Women’s Division with a crucial heat win early this morning (Wednesday 29^th June).

Hareb’s win comes amongst a mixed day of results that included the longboaders moving through their respective heats but the four men’s surfers eliminated from the event as well as Grace Spiers (WGM) in the Women’s Division.

Hareb won her fourth round match up today progressing alongside Sofia Mulanovich with a score of 10.33 points to Mulanovich’s 10.17 points defeating surfers from USA and Costa Rica.

“I went out with a plan to catch right handers and by the time we actually started the heat after a lengthy delay, the rights had disappeared!” commented Hareb on how the heat got underway.

“I didn't really have anything for the first ten minutes of the heat and my leg hurts more going left so I didn't want to catch them but time was running out so I had to go and I ended up getting a 7.33 and a low scoring back up wave of 3.0.

Hareb’s leg continues to give her problems at the event after injuring it on day one.  However, through pain killers and massage, she is managing to push through the pain barrier for valuable heat wins.

Hareb now has a three person heat against fellow Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour surfer Jessi Miley Dyer (AUS) and Dimity Stoyle (AUS) to make it through to the semifinals and a chance and direct qualification for the grand final.  Her two competitors are part of the leading Australian team who are hoping to wrestle the gold medal off Peru who won the event in home waters in 2010.

Auckland longboaders Phil Morris and Matt Cockayne also kept their hopes alive today via two distinctly different pathways.

Morris who was still alive in the qualifying rounds surfed a tightly contested heat but ultimately placed fourth requiring a 6.56 and was relegated to the repechage rounds.  Morris now faces one of the top seeds in Dane Pioli (Aus) along with Remi Arauzo (FRA) and Patricio Gonzalez (Mex) in Round 4.

Matt Cockayne on the other hand was already fighting it out in the repechage rounds and indeed progressed through two heats on day three to join Morris in the fourth round to be contested early on Thursday morning.

A first time national representative, Cockayne won his first heat scoring 10.83 points out of a possible 20 with single wave scores of 5.83 and 5.0 on his two scoring rides.

Cockayne then went on to a second placing in Round 3 progressing alongside South African Justin Bing to reach the final eighteen surfers in the event.

Ben Poulter (Rag) and Zen Wallis (Piha) progressed through their second round heats today before being eliminated from the event placing 37^th overall.

Grace Spiers - Image ISA/Watts

Poulter found himself up against Francisco Villaran (VEN) and current ASP world number five Jeremy Flores (FRA).  Up against the odds, the youngest member of the New Zealand team placed third requiring a combination of waves to reach the French surfer who placed second in the heat to the Venezuelan.

Wallis found himself in a slightly closer battle in his third round match up against Ruda Carvalho (BRA), Martin Jeri from the defending champion Peruvian team and Evan Thompson (USA).  Wallis finished the heat in third place requiring a 7.57 point ride for progression with the Brazilian and Peruvian surfers progressing.

In the round prior both Tane Wallis (Piha) and JC Susan (Mnt) placed third in their heats with Wallis going the closest to progression only requiring a 4.97 point ride to place second in the tough 1.0m beach break conditions that lacked any defined sand banks.  The two surfers finished the event placed 49^th.

Grace Spiers (WGM) was the final casualty of the day placing fourth in her low scoring heat unable to find any wave that gave her a chance to score the low 3.33 point ride required to push her through to the next round.  Spiers finished the event placed 31^st.

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.

Please see below for the results from day three of the 2011 Billabong ISA World Surfing Games being held in Playa Venao, Panama from the 25^th June – 2^nd of July.

Open Men’s Repechage Round 2
Heat 3
1, 11.14, Magnum Martinez, VEN, 2, 9.53, Luis Chamorro, NIC, 3, 8.64, Tane Wallis, NZL, 4, 6.54, Deivis Godoy, PAN
Heat 5
1, 14.03, Matthew Bromley, RSA, 2, 11.37, Zen Wallis, NZL, 3, 10.23, Maximiliano Siri, ARG, 4, 9.87, Rex Calderon, NIC
Heat 7
1, 18.60, Leandro Usuna, ARG, 2, 14.67, Martin Jeri, PER, 3, 6.56, JC Susan, GUA, 4, 5.33, Swen Zaugg, SWI
Heat 9
1, 16.33, Juninho Urcia, PER, 2, 11.40, Ben Poulter, NZL, 3, 11.03, Jean Carlos Gonzalez, PAN, 4, 10.04, Adan Hernandez, MEX

Open Men’s Repechage Round 3
Heat 4
1, 14.53, Ruda Carvalho, BRA, 2, 12.57, Martin Jeri, PER, 3, 9.73, Zen Wallis, NZL, 4, 9.42, Evan Thompson, USA
Heat 6
1, 16.06, Francisco Bellorin, VEN, 2, 13.83, Jeremy Flores, FRA, 3, 6.54, Ben Poulter, NZL, 4, 5.33, Gary Saavedra, PAN


Open Women’s Qualifying Round 3
Heat 1
1, 10.33, Paige Hareb, NZL, 2, 10.17, Sofia Mulanovich, PER, 3, 5.50, Kaleigh Gilchrist, USA, 4, 3.47, Leilani McGonagle, CRI

Open Women’s Qualifying Round 4 (Yet to be surfed)
Heat 1
Paige Hareb, NZL, Jessi Miley-Dyer, AUS, Dimity Stoyle, AUS

Open Women’s Repechage Round 2
Heat 1
1, 7.00, Lucia Cosoleto, ARG, 2, 5.33, Alena Ehrenbold, SWI, 3, 3.97, Satoko Azumi, JPN, 4, 3.93, Grace Spiers, NZL


Men’s Longboard Qualifying Round 3
Heat 3
1, 14.17, Antoine Delpero, FRA, 2, 11.23, Heifara Tahutini Jr., TAH, 3, 11.04, Caio Husadel, BRA, 4, 8.37, Phil Morris, NZL

Men’s Longboard Repechage Round 2
Heat 1
1, 10.83, Matt Cockayne, NZL, 2, 10.23, Willber Marroquin, SAL, 3, 7.96, Laonardo Merchand, ECU, 4, 7.35, Tamil Martino, PER

Men’s Longboard Repechage Round 3
Heat 1
1, 13.34, Justin Bing, RSA, 2, 9.33, Matt Cockayne, NZL, 3, 8.43, Anthony Flores, CRI, 4, 6.74, Stefan Vogel, SWI

Men’s Longboard Repechage Round 4 (Yet to be surfed)
Heat 2
Caio Husadel, BRA, Martin Perez, ARG, Ronald Reyes, VEN, Matt Cockayne, NZL
Heat 3
Remi Arauzo, FRA, Phil Morris, NZL, Dane Pioli, AUS, Patricio Gonzalez, MEX

Day four will commence at 1:00am Thursday (New Zealand time).

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.

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