Gymnastics at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's pommel horse explained

Event:	Men's pommel horse
Games:	1964 Summer
Venue:	Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium
Date:	18–22 October
Competitors:	128
Nations:	29
Longnames:	yes
Win Value:	19.525
Win Label:	Winning score
Gold:	Miroslav Cerar
Goldnoc:	YUG
Silver:	Shuji Tsurumi
Silvernoc:	JPN
Bronze:	Yury Tsapenko
Bronzenoc:	URS
Prev:	1960
Next:	1968

The men's pommel horse was a gymnastics event contested as part of the Gymnastics at the 1964 Summer Olympics programme at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.^[1] The event was held on 18, 20, and 22 October. There were 128 competitors from 29 nations, with nations in the team competition having up to 6 gymnasts and other nations entering up to 3 gymnasts. The event was won by Miroslav Cerar of Yugoslavia, the nation's first medal in the pommel horse. Silver went to Shuji Tsurumi of Japan, the third man to win multiple medals in the event (adding to his 1960 bronze). Yury Tsapenko of the Soviet Union took bronze, breaking a three-Games gold medal streak for the Soviets.

Background

This was the 11th appearance of the event, which is one of the five apparatus events held every time there were apparatus events at the Summer Olympics (no apparatus events were held in 1900, 1908, 1912, or 1920). All six finalists from 1960 returned: joint gold medalists Eugen Ekman of Finland and Boris Shakhlin of the Soviet Union (who had also won gold in 1956), bronze medalist Shuji Tsurumi of Japan, fourth-place finisher Takashi Mitsukuri of Japan, fifth-place finisher Yury Titov of the Soviet Union, and sixth-place finisher Takashi Ono of Japan. Miroslav Cerar of Yugoslavia was the reigning (1962) world champion; Shakhlin had finished second and Mitsukuri third.^[2]

Algeria, the Republic of China, Iran, and Mongolia each made their debut in the men's pommel horse. The United States made its 10th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 Games.

Competition format

The gymnastics all-around events continued to use the aggregation format. Each nation entered a team of six gymnasts or up to two individual gymnasts. All entrants in the gymnastics competitions performed both a compulsory exercise and a voluntary exercise for each apparatus. The scores for all 12 exercises were summed to give an individual all-around score.

These exercise scores were also used for qualification for the apparatus finals. The two exercises (compulsory and voluntary) for each apparatus were summed to give an apparatus score; the top 6 in each apparatus participated in the finals; others were ranked 7th through 128th. For the apparatus finals, the all-around score for that apparatus was multiplied by one-half then added to the final round exercise score to give a final total.

Exercise scores ranged from 0 to 10, with the final total apparatus score from 0 to 20.^[2] ^[3]

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 18 October 1964	8:30 17:00	Preliminary: Compulsory
Tuesday, 20 October 1964	8:30 17:00	Preliminary: Voluntary
Friday, 22 October 1964	18:00	Final

Results

Each gymnast competed in both compulsory and optional exercises, with the median scores from the four judges for the two sets of exercises were summed. This score was also used in calculating both individual all-around and team scores.

The top 6 advanced to the final for the apparatus, keeping half of their preliminary score to be added to their final score.

Rank	Gymnast	Nation	Preliminary			Final
Rank	Gymnast	Nation	Compulsory	Voluntary	Total	Prelim.	Final	Total
			9.70	9.75	19.45	9.725	9.800	19.525
			9.55	9.70	19.25	9.625	9.700	19.325
			9.55	9.55	19.10	9.550	9.650	19.200
4			9.50	9.65	19.15	9.575	9.500	19.075
5			9.50	9.55	19.05	9.525	9.400	18.925
6			9.65	9.65	19.30	9.650	9.000	18.650
7			9.40	9.50	18.90	Did not advance
			9.50	9.40	18.90	Did not advance
			9.45	9.45	18.90	Did not advance
10			9.30	9.55	18.85	Did not advance
11			9.30	9.50	18.80	Did not advance
			9.45	9.35	18.80	Did not advance
			9.30	9.50	18.80	Did not advance
14			9.35	9.40	18.75	Did not advance
			9.35	9.40	18.75	Did not advance
			9.45	9.30	18.75	Did not advance
17			9.30	9.40	18.70	Did not advance
			9.45	9.25	18.70	Did not advance
			9.60	9.10	18.70	Did not advance
			9.50	9.20	18.70	Did not advance
			9.40	9.20	18.70	Did not advance
22			9.15	9.50	18.65	Did not advance
			9.25	9.40	18.65	Did not advance
			9.35	9.30	18.65	Did not advance
25			9.20	9.40	18.60	Did not advance
			9.20	9.40	18.60	Did not advance
			9.45	9.15	18.60	Did not advance
28			9.25	9.30	18.55	Did not advance
			9.30	9.25	18.55	Did not advance
			9.30	9.25	18.55	Did not advance
			9.30	9.25	18.55	Did not advance
			9.10	9.45	18.55	Did not advance
			9.30	9.25	18.55	Did not advance
			9.20	9.35	18.55	Did not advance
			9.20	9.35	18.55	Did not advance
36			9.20	9.30	18.50	Did not advance
			9.25	9.25	18.50	Did not advance
			9.20	9.30	18.50	Did not advance
39			9.20	9.25	18.45	Did not advance
40			9.35	9.05	18.40	Did not advance
			9.05	9.35	18.40	Did not advance
			9.20	9.20	18.40	Did not advance
			9.10	9.30	18.40	Did not advance
44			9.15	9.20	18.35	Did not advance
45			9.35	8.95	18.30	Did not advance
			9.05	9.25	18.30	Did not advance
			9.50	8.80	18.30	Did not advance
			9.20	9.10	18.30	Did not advance
			9.20	9.10	18.30	Did not advance
50			9.05	9.20	18.25	Did not advance
			9.10	9.15	18.25	Did not advance
			9.10	9.15	18.25	Did not advance
			9.10	9.15	18.25	Did not advance
54			9.00	9.20	18.20	Did not advance
			8.90	9.30	18.20	Did not advance
			9.15	9.05	18.20	Did not advance
			9.25	8.95	18.20	Did not advance
			9.05	9.15	18.20	Did not advance
			9.35	8.85	18.20	Did not advance
60			9.00	9.15	18.15	Did not advance
			9.00	9.15	18.15	Did not advance
			9.10	9.05	18.15	Did not advance
			9.00	9.15	18.15	Did not advance
			9.10	9.05	18.15	Did not advance
			9.20	8.95	18.15	Did not advance
			9.10	9.05	18.15	Did not advance
67			9.10	9.00	18.10	Did not advance
67			9.35	8.75	18.10	Did not advance
69			9.00	9.05	18.05	Did not advance
			9.10	8.95	18.05	Did not advance
			9.25	8.80	18.05	Did not advance
72			8.90	9.10	18.00	Did not advance
			9.05	8.95	18.00	Did not advance
			8.80	9.20	18.00	Did not advance
			9.00	9.00	18.00	Did not advance
76			8.80	9.15	17.95	Did not advance
76			8.75	9.20	17.95	Did not advance
78			9.00	8.85	17.85	Did not advance
78			9.05	8.80	17.85	Did not advance
80			8.90	8.90	17.80	Did not advance
80			9.00	8.80	17.80	Did not advance
82			9.35	8.40	17.75	Did not advance
83			9.20	8.50	17.70	Did not advance
83			8.95	8.75	17.70	Did not advance
85			9.05	8.50	17.55	Did not advance
85			8.40	9.15	17.55	Did not advance
87			8.80	8.70	17.50	Did not advance
87			8.95	8.55	17.50	Did not advance
89			8.60	8.85	17.45	Did not advance
90			8.95	8.45	17.40	Did not advance
91			8.80	8.50	17.30	Did not advance
92			8.15	9.10	17.25	Did not advance
92			8.70	8.55	17.25	Did not advance
94			9.20	8.00	17.20	Did not advance
95			8.45	8.65	17.10	Did not advance
96			8.50	8.55	17.05	Did not advance
96			8.90	8.15	17.05	Did not advance
98			7.80	9.15	16.95	Did not advance
99			7.70	9.20	16.90	Did not advance
99			8.80	8.10	16.90	Did not advance
101			8.75	8.10	16.85	Did not advance
101			8.70	8.15	16.85	Did not advance
103			8.10	8.60	16.70	Did not advance
104			8.80	7.85	16.65	Did not advance
105			7.85	8.70	16.55	Did not advance
106			8.15	7.75	15.90	Did not advance
107			8.15	7.70	15.85	Did not advance
108			8.10	7.70	15.80	Did not advance
109			8.10	7.50	15.60	Did not advance
110			7.75	7.65	15.40	Did not advance
111			7.95	7.40	15.35	Did not advance
111			8.00	7.35	15.35	Did not advance
113			7.55	7.60	15.15	Did not advance
114			6.35	8.45	14.80	Did not advance
115			7.20	7.45	14.65	Did not advance
116			7.00	7.60	14.60	Did not advance
117			6.95	7.35	14.30	Did not advance
118			7.45	6.45	13.90	Did not advance
119			6.50	6.90	13.40	Did not advance
120			7.75	5.40	13.15	Did not advance
121			6.90	5.90	12.80	Did not advance
122			6.60	5.70	12.30	Did not advance
123			6.85	5.00	11.85	Did not advance
124			5.50	4.50	10.00	Did not advance
125			5.05	3.75	8.80	Did not advance
126			8.25	—	8.25	Did not advance
127			7.30	—	7.30	Did not advance
128			3.50	3.00	6.50	Did not advance
—				Did not advance
			Did not advance

Sources

Book: Tokyo Organizing Committee . The Games of the XVIII Olympiad: Tokyo 1964, vol. 2 . 1964 .

Notes and References

Web site: Gymnastics at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games: Men's Pommelled Horse . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417100945/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1964/GYM/mens-pommelled-horse.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . Sports Reference . 2 August 2019.
Web site: Pommelled Horse, Men . Olympedia . 1 December 2020.
Official Report, vol. 2, p. 362.