Surfing: Dream start takes Hareb to last eight

New Zealand surfer Paige Hareb's dream start to the world tour continued yesterday when she became the first woman to book a quarter-final spot at the Roxy Pro Gold Coast.

Hareb, 18, was too good for Australia's Amee Donohoe in their third round match-up yesterday, scoring 15.17 points out of a possible 20, to Donohoe's 11.34.

A top score of 8 points on her fourth wave applied the pressure and Hareb sealed victory with a 7.17 score on her seventh wave. Donohoe's best single effort was 6.17 points.

It put Hareb through to the last eight in the 18-woman field, where she will meet Brazilian Bruna Schmitz.

Earlier in the day, Hareb had beaten world No 5 Donohoe, following up her success against two top 10-ranked Australians on Monday.

After her first round-win in her world tour debut, Hareb had an anxious wait when light waves forced three consecutive lay days for the elite men's and women's fields.

Surfing finally got started at Duranbah under sunny skies in clean 3 foot (0.9m) beach-break waves.

- NZPA