New Zealander Paige Hareb continued her run at the world
surfing games in Panama today, moving through to the final
six after a narrow win over Brazilian Sofia Mulanovich.
Hareb took her fourth round match at Playa Venao with a score
of 10.33 to Mulanovich's 10.17.
"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," Hareb said.
"I didn't really have anything for the first 10 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 continues to struggle with a leg injury incurred on the
first day of the games. However, through pain killers and
massage, she has managed to push through the pain barrier and
pick up valuable heat wins.
Hareb now has a three-person heat against fellow Association
of Surfing Professionals World Tour surfer Jessi Miley Dyer
and Dimity Stoyle, both of Australia, to make it through to
the semifinals and a chance at direct qualification for the
grand final.
Her two competitors are part of the leading Australian team
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 and was
relegated to the repechage rounds.
He now faces one of the top seeds in Australian Dane Pioli
along with Frenchman Remi Arauzo and Patricio Gonzalez
(Mexico) in Round four.
Cockayne, already fighting it out in the repechage rounds,
progressed through two heats on day three to join Morris in
the fourth round to be contested early on Thursday morning
(NZT).
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.
He then went on to a second placing in round three,
progressing alongside South African Justin Bing to reach the
final 18 surfers in the event.
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