SAN FRANCISCO -- Aaron Shamy doesn't know where he will be living for the next two years. But wherever his two-year mission takes him, the rock climber will always remember San Francisco as the city where he struck X Games V gold.

In his last competition before take a climbing sabbatical on a Mormon mission, Shamy won Friday's speed climbing event with a perfect sprint up the wall to beat local favorite Chris Bloch. The ever-smiling Shamy, who is always full of energy on and off the wall, shattered Vladimir Netsvetaev's gold-medal winning time of a year ago (15.38) with an amazing 12.61-second ascent.

	Shamy shakes hands with Netsvetaev during the awards ceremony.

"Did I think I could go that fast? Yeah, I did," Shamy said sheepishly. "(But) everybody here had it in them. It was just who was going to have the perfect run. I was lucky enough to have the perfect run in the final.

"It feels good (to get the gold). But it feels good to just be here. I'm just so privileged to meet all these amazing people from all over the world. I'm always going to have a good time. Gold medalist or not." Netsvetaev, who lost to Bloch in the semifinals, took home bronze.

The women's gold went to Renata Piszczek of Poland. She beat Russia's Olga Zakharova in the final with a perfect run up the wall. Etta Hendrawati took the bronze. "I didn't expect (gold). It's a big surprise for me," said Piszczek. "It's just perfect. I feel very, very happy."

Piszczek looked stronger as the day went along. She enjoyed a trouble-free trip in the final. But Piszczek said she could have been out of the competition early had she run up against a stronger climber in the preliminary rounds.

"The first run today, I don't know, I was just a little tired after yesterday. I didn't feel very good," Piszczek said. "If I had to compete against a very strong girl in that first (climb), I would have lost.

"But that last run I felt power."

Shamy won X Games silver last year in San Diego. He beat Bloch by about a body length in the final, but came within a finger nail of losing in the semifinal. He slapped the buzzer just hundredths of a second before Andrii Vedenmieier.

"I was making mistakes the whole time," said Shamy of his semifinal run. "I made so many mistakes, I was just hoping it would turn out right. Up until the last run, there were two or three holds that I felt slow on. But other than that, it all flowed."

For San Francisco's Bloch, it was his second silver medal in three years. He won bronze a year ago. Bloch knew the times where dropping in each round and only a perfect run would take home gold. When he slipped, he knew it meant the gold medal would go to Shamy.

"I was feeling really good going into the final, but I knew it was the kind of run where you couldn't have any slips," Boch said. "In the previous runs, Aaron had slipped a little bit and I had slipped a little bit. So, I figured there was no room for error. I had a minor slip, lost my footing, and that was the difference.

The climbers will now move over to the boulder rocks, a new event that has taken the place of difficulty climbing at this year's Summer X Games. The bouldering preliminaries are Sunday, while the finals for both men and women are scheduled for Monday afternoon on Pier 30.

Wrist injury forces McCoy off street
The bicycle stunt street competition went on without one its stars when Dennis McCoy was forced to withdraw from the competition after injuring his right wrist in practice Thursday. McCoy, last year's bronze medalist in street, tested his wrist in practice Friday but couldn't go when qualifying started.

McCoy said he plans to try to compete in vert, which starts Monday. McCoy jammed his wrist Thursday, but said it was a recurring injury. According to McCoy, it usually takes two or three days for the wrist to heal enough for him to ride.

On the street course, Dave Mirra led qualifying with his usual assortment of high-flying tricks and solid work on the rails. The three-time street gold medalist highlighted his first run with a one-handed, 360-spin over the jump box and then gave the standing-room only crowd something to look forward to in the finals with an X-out back flip.

Street specialist Ruben Alcantara of Spain was second behind Mirra, taking advantage of the course design with a unique line around all the obstacles. Ryan Nyquist was third, while Jay Miron qualified fourth.

Always one to take it to the extreme, Dave Voelker put three back flips -- and three falls -- into his first run to qualify fifth. Chad Kagy, Colin Mackay, Josh Heino, Rob Nolli and Joey Garcia rounded out the top 10 who reached the final.

Snow in San Francisco
Mild temperature in the City by the Bay allowed workers to create snow throughout Thursday night and into Friday morning with little trouble. And at 11 a.m., snowboarders hit the big air ramp for an afternoon of practice.

The competition is slated for noon Saturday.

In past years, the San Diego weather has not been as cooperative. While the snowboarding big air events have gone off on schedule, practice sessions had to be cancelled.

All snowboarders have to worry about in San Francisco are tricky winds that can gust up to 30 mph.