Degrees of difficulty

Sunday's finals of the event were not without drama, though.

Allen, who turns 14 on July 30, had to overcome a fall on the first route to repeat as Gorge Games champion.

She trailed Harrington going into the third and final route.

The third route, however, played to her strengths because it included a dyno -- a difficult sideways move -- that Allen has been practicing while getting prepared for the Ford Gorge Games.

"I was a little nervous on the first route, but then I settled down," said Allen, the three-time defending Junior National and International champion. "I knew that the dyno would be coming up and knew that I could stick it."

There was one surprise in the men's competition where 2000 Gorge Games runnerup Chris Sharma showed his always-consistent form in edging out Nels Rosaasen, the 2000 champion.

Sharma and Rosaasen were the only climbers to master the third route laid out on the climbing wall.

Early on, though, things got dicey for the eventual winner.

On the first route of the day, Sharma was one move from the top when a bolt on one of the holds came loose.

He lost his grip and fell to the mats below. However, it was his only fall of the day (nor was he penalized for the equipment failure), and he was flawless the rest of the way.

"It was significantly harder today," said Sharma, 21. " We had to pull a lot of energy out because of the heat. My strategy is not to let go, not to fall, not to waste any energy; it would be too hard to give it a second attempt."

For complete Ford Gorge Games results, log on to www.gorgegames.com\results on the World Wide Web.

FORD GORGE GAMES

CLIMBING RESULTS

Sunday, July 21

Adventure Village

Hood River Marina

Women

1, Tori Allen, Indianapolis, Ind.

2, Liz Asher, Austin, Texas.

3, Emily Harrington, Boulder, Colo.

4, Lauren Lee, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Men

1, Chris Sharma, Santa Cruz, Calif.

2, Nels Rosaasen, Saskakatoon, Sask., Canada.

3, John Stack, Boulder, Colo.

4, Hee-Jo Kim, Seoul, S. Korea.