Nikita Robb battled through her opening round heat in horrendous conditions at the 4-Star R140 000 Billabong Girls Pro World Qualifying Series (WQS) event in Praia da Tiririca, Bahia, Brazil, to keep her hopes alive for qualifying for the elite ASP Women’s World Tour in 2008.
Competing in heavy 1.5- to two metre (4-6 foot) waves that forced organisers to call the event off after just three heats, the plucky East Londoner managed to catch two rides in the opening heat of the event, and progress to the next round.
Robb, currently ranked 13th, is one of only three girls who is still in contention to force their way into the group of six girls from the 2007 WQS that join the top 10 finishers on the year-end World Tour rankings to contest next year’s elite level tour.
Eyes were also on current WQS champion, Australia’s Jessi Miley-Dyer, who stole the show on Saturday, when she surfed the best wave of the contest to score a near-perfect 9,75, after that she scored a 8,0 to establish 17,75 out of a maximum 20 points.
“I’m really happy about these records, it’s hard surfing here in Itacare, it’s also hard to get back to the line-up”, said Miley-Dyer. The new champion of the Billabong Girls Pro WQS will earn 3.500 dollars and 1.500 points in the WQS ranking.
Nikita Robb will meet in-form Brazilians Tais de Almeida and Silvana Lima, and Jessi Miley-Dyer in the quarter-finals.