Surfing: Kiwi pair into quarters at world games

Paige Hareb and Phil Morris kept New Zealand hopes alive in the main round of the world surfing games in Panama overnight.

Their six New Zealand teammates were all eliminated in the second round of competition, leaving Hareb and Morris the sole New Zealand representatives through to the quarterfinals.

Struggling with a leg injury incurred in yesterday's opening round, Hareb eased her way to second place behind Brazilian surfer Silvana Lima's impressive 16.67 point heat total.

Hareb's 10.0 was good enough to relegate South African Tanika Hoffman and Pamela Verboonen (Mexico) to the repechages.

"It's OK, it felt like a dead leg today but it's getting better, just tight and tender," Hareb said afterwards.

"It still feels bad when I'm surfing -- I didn't surf my best today, but it wasn't bad enough to keep me out of the water," added Hareb, who relied on pain killers and anti-inflammatories to see her through the day.

With the win, Hareb is likely to skip the third day of competition allowing more recovery time before the event heads toward the big match-ups.

"I'm hoping I will get a day off tomorrow to give me a good day of rest and then I reckon I'll be closer to 100 percent ready to go again," she said.

Hareb meets old friend Sofia Mulanovich from Peru in the quarterfinals. The New Zealander finished second in the final of the 2010 event, to Mulanovich's third.

Hareb will also face off against American Kaleigh Gilchrist and Leilani McGonagle (Costa Rica).

Longboader Morris was the other stand-out surfer, placing second in his heat.

He scored a 10.70 point heat total behind Piccolo Clemente (Peru), defeating South African Justin Bing and Costa Rica's Anthony Flores.

Morris now faces a challenging third round match up against Brazilian Caio Husadel, Antoine Delporo (France) and Tahiti's Heifara Tahutini.

The four New Zealanders in the open men's division were all relegated to the repechage rounds after fourth-place finishes.

Mount Maunganui team member JC Susan summed it up succinctly: "It wasn't too hard out there. We just all stuffed up pretty bad. The waves were good but we picked the wrong ones.

"We are pretty gutted at the moment but we have to wipe that out of our thinking and work toward a good performance tomorrow."

New Zealander Grace Spiers was also pushed into the repechage rounds of the women's division after placing fourth.

The New Zealand team placed seventh from 31 nations in 2010, the highest ranking achieved by New Zealand in the past decade.