Surfing: White last Kiwi to exit surfing Open

Paige Hareb. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand interest at the world surfing games at Peru turned to the women's championship and men's longboard division with the exit of Nick White from the open men's competition yesterday.

Mt Maunganui's White placed 29th equal overall after teammates Luke Hughes of Raglan, Keone Campbell of Taranaki, and Gisborne's Morehu Roberts also failed to advance from their repechage heats.

Taranaki's Paige Hareb, Mt Maunganui's Laura Rishworth and longboarders Thomas Kibblewhite of Auckland, and Daniel Procter of Gisborne all remain alive in their qualifying rounds of the event. Kibblewhite and Procter both placed second in their qualifying heats yesterday.

Kibblewhite's third round opponents today are defending champion Antoine Delpero of France, Jean Tahutini from Tahiti and South African Matthew Moir.

Procter will take on Peru's Benoit Clemete, Tahiti's Heifara Tahutini and France's Remi Arauzo in his next round.

Hareb and Rishworth have been watching from the sidelines for the past three days while a massive swell has been pounding the Peruvian coastline, forcing organisers to run only one of the two podiums on offer during this period.

* New Zealand surfers Richard Christie and Billy Stairmand have charged up the world rankings after good results at a second-tier competition in the United States.

Raglan's Stairmand finished third at yesterday's Cold Water Classic at Santa Cruz, California, to move from 97th to 66th while Christie, who was ninth, is now 53rd, up 13 spots.

The Santa Cruz event was a six-star prime event, which is a tier down from the world tour. They are now the highest ranked New Zealanders on the world tour since Gisborne's Maz Quinn placed seventh on the world qualifying series in 2001.

- NZPA