SAN FRANCISCO -- A typically breezy, cool day on the San Francisco waterfront made it difficult for the sport climbers to warm up their muscles for the speed climbing event, and to stay warm while in staging for their turn to climb the 60 foot wall. But that didn't deter the athletes, both men and women, from taking runs to break the wall records set last year.

In the men's event, San Franciscan Chris Bloch was poised to break his string of X Games silver medals -- 1996, 1997 and 1999 -- and finally win gold in front of the home crowd. Bloch seemed to be off to a great start by clocking 12.51 in the semi-finals, breaking the wall record by a tenth of a second. It didn't last long, though, as Ukrainian Vladimir Zakharov turned in an 11.82 in the other semi.

In the final, paired with Bloch, Zakharov broke the record again with a nearly flawless run in 11.58 seconds. Zakharov took the gold and left Bloch, once again, holding the bag and the silver medal.

"It's frustrating that he broke the wall record twice and still came in second," said Michelle Shellenberg, Bloch's girlfriend. "He can't be too disappointed."

Poland's Tomasz Oleksy won the bronze medal by defeating Alexei Gadeev of Russia in the consolation race.

The women had every bit as much luck scaling the wall through less-than-ideal conditions. Elena Repko, another Ukrainian who was working off nervous energy by playing with a toy donkey she had brought along, set the women's course record during the seeding round by smashing the old record of 20.77 by over two seconds. Repko's gold medal chances were dealt a blow in her semi-final when a false start went unheeded by her and Alena Ostapenko, forcing them to rerun the route.

In the final, having climed the wall one extra time, Repko was beaten by Indonesian Etti Hendrawati, who climed the route in 17.39 seconds to set another new wall record.

Hendrawati, who won a bronze medal in this event a year ago, was not ranked in the world this season. Before today, she only competed in the Indonesian Federation in 2000, after winning last year's Asian X Games.

Olga Zakharova took home the bronze medal by defeating fellow Ukrainian Alena Ostapenko in the consolation race.

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