WOAHHHHHHH!!! AIKO made it!!! YESSSSSSS!!!

I've held my breath in the last days.. I saw AIKO get on top twice, and Heike catching her twice. A true vote-by-vote battle!
Indeed, the tie-breaker was needed to decide the winner.. by the way, I really like your tie-breaking criterion, barefootfootseeker..
I mean, if you want to support a model in this contest, you have to be proud of your vote, and declare it!
Frankly speaking, before the start of the contest I thought that no BUG model would have made it to the quarter-finals.
Besides the tough opposition, I was afraid that a certain anti-BUG and anti-Feetosopher attitude in this forum could play against them.
I am super-happy to have been proven wrong!

With wonderful AIKO, the BAREFOOT URBAN GIRLS' flag now boldly waves on the quarter-finals!
BOW TO THE GODDESS!!!

AIKO poses by a typical "Gondola" in Venice (Italy), July 2010

I'm very happy, too, Aiko made it! All girls deserved it, though.

congrats to Aiko!

I have just informed AIKO about her pass to the quarter-finals. She is very happy that her fans have not forgotten her (well, how could they? ).
AIKO is now 35: she is a happy mother, runs a gym, teaches Pilates, still practices martial arts and.. she is still barefoot most of her time!
AIKO sends a big kiss and a huge thank you to all those who supported her in this contest.. and hopes that they will continue to do so in the quarter-finals!

wow, thats lovely, thank you very much for bringing us her wishes!
and fantastic to hear she is doing very well in her life!!

It's a pity that you did not clearly declare that declaring votes would be a tie-breaking criterion, choosing instead to announce it in a separate thread, in a separate section of the forum, and in this thread only a week after the voting had actually started, long after I and others had cast their votes. Oh well!

You are right, and I apologise for that. Honestly the need for a tie-breaking criterion came to my mind only when the poll for Group A had already started. Probably I should have put a notice also in this thread.
However, please note that I run this contest as a hobby: I get no money for it. So I think that minor flaws could be forgiven. In any case, I stated the tie-breaking criterion from the start in Group B, and I will do that also for the remaining groups.
From your complaint I guess that you did not vote for Aiko: you probably voted for Heike, didn't you? If so, you should consider that the three people who voted for Aiko, but did not declare their votes, might have done that if I had advertised the tie-breaking criterion in this thread. On what grounds can you assume that declared votes would have been in favour of Heike rather than of Aiko? We will never know.

Hi barefootseeker,

I appreciate the apology. And I apologise in turn for using a mocking tone. I was trying to be playful / facetious. I found your tone ("it's a pity that...") a little condescending so I replied using a similar phrasing. I know you're doing this for fun, and I am also responding to the polls for fun. Weather Heike or Aiko goes to the next round ultimately makes no difference in my life. And it makes even less of a difference here because I appreciate Heike and Aiko almost equally. It was a difficult choice, but I voted for Heike in the end, as you have surmised correctly. However, you are incorrect about one thing: I am not assuming that Heike would have won had the tie-breaker been made clear. I just know that I would have declared for Heike, maybe even posted a pic of her to entice others. But, honestly, whatever! Cheers to Aiko and cheers to Heike! I'll nevertheless leave some nice pics to our eliminated beauty Heike...

OK markpendre, I think that I have understood your reasons now. I hope that we are both considering the (small) incident closed. Thank you for the pictures of Heike: as I have said I am a great fan of hers, and it was a difficult choice for me. Even more so because Alexandra is a great favourite of mine among City Feet models.