The men's vault was a gymnastics event contested as part of the Gymnastics at the 1964 Summer Olympics programme at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The event was held on 18, 20, and 23 October. There were 130 competitors from 30 nations, with nations in the team competition having up to 6 gymnasts and other nations entering up to 3 gymnasts. For the first time in three Games, there was a clear winner with no tie. Haruhiro Yamashita took the gold medal, the second consecutive gold for Japan. Victor Lisitsky finished second, taking silver but breaking the Soviet Union's three-Games gold medal streak. Hannu Rantakari's bronze was Finland's first medal in the event since 1948.

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). Seven of the top 11 (including three-way tie for 9th) gymnasts from 1960 returned: joint gold medalists Takashi Ono of Japan and Boris Shakhlin of the Soviet Union, fourth-place finisher Yury Titov of the Soviet Union, fifth-place finisher Yukio Endo, sixth-place finisher Shuji Tsurumi, and eighth-place finisher Takashi Mitsukuri of Japan, and ninth-place finishers Franco Menichelli and Giovanni Carminucci of Italy. Ono had also taken bronze in 1952, Titov had taken bronze in 1956, and Shakhlin had finished fourth in 1956. The reigning (1962) world champion was Přemysl Krbec of Czechoslovakia, with Haruhiro Yamashita of Japan second and Endo and Shakhlin tied for third.

Algeria, the Republic of China, Iran, Mongolia, and the Philippines each made their debut in the men's vault. 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. The event used a "vaulting horse" aligned parallel to the gymnast's run (rather than the modern "vaulting table" in use since 2004).

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 130th. 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.Official Report, vol. 2, p. 362.

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

Date Time Round Sunday, 18 October 1964 8:3017:00 Preliminary: Compulsory Tuesday, 20 October 1964 8:3017:00 Preliminary: Voluntary Friday, 23 October 1964 19:30 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 Compulsory Voluntary Total Prelim. Final Total Haruhiro Yamashita 9.70 9.80 19.50 9.750 9.850 19.600 Victor Lisitsky 9.75 9.75 19.50 9.750 9.575 19.325 Hannu Rantakari 9.65 9.70 19.35 9.675 9.625 19.300 4 Shuji Tsurumi 9.65 9.65 19.30 9.650 9.575 19.225 5 Boris Shakhlin 9.65 9.70 19.35 9.675 9.525 19.200 6 Yukio Endo 9.75 9.65 19.40 9.700 9.375 19.075 7 Siegfried Fulle 9.65 9.65 19.30 Did not advance Alfred Kucharczyk 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance 9 Sergey Diomidov 9.60 9.65 19.25 Did not advance Yury Titov 9.65 9.60 19.25 Did not advance Premysl Krbec 9.55 9.70 19.25 Did not advance Walter Muller 9.55 9.70 19.25 Did not advance Nicola Prodanov 9.55 9.70 19.25 Did not advance 14 Takashi Ono 9.65 9.55 19.20 Did not advance Wilhelm Weiler 9.50 9.70 19.20 Did not advance 16 Fritz Feuz 9.50 9.65 19.15 Did not advance Takuji Hayata 9.45 9.70 19.15 Did not advance Gunter Lyhs 9.55 9.65 19.15 Did not advance 19 Miroslav Cerar 9.50 9.60 19.10 Did not advance Rajmund Csanyi 9.55 9.55 19.10 Did not advance Raimo Heinonen 9.40 9.70 19.10 Did not advance Klaus Koste 9.40 9.75 19.10 Did not advance Mikolaj Kubica 9.55 9.55 19.10 Did not advance 24 Fredy Egger 9.45 9.60 19.05 Did not advance Franco Menichelli 9.35 9.70 19.05 Did not advance Mitsukuri Takashi 9.50 9.55 19.05 Did not advance Yury Tsapenko 9.50 9.55 19.05 Did not advance 28 Age Storhaug 9.45 9.55 19.00 Did not advance Peter Weber 9.45 9.55 19.00 Did not advance 30 Istvan Aranyos 9.50 9.45 18.95 Did not advance Philipp Furst 9.40 9.55 18.95 Did not advance Victor Leontyev 9.40 9.55 18.95 Did not advance Bohumil Mudrik 9.35 9.60 18.95 Did not advance Makoto Sakamoto 9.45 9.50 18.95 Did not advance Peter Sos 9.45 9.50 18.95 Did not advance 36 Meinrad Berchtold 9.40 9.50 18.90 Did not advance Vaclav Kubicka 9.40 9.50 18.90 Did not advance Andras Lelkes 9.40 9.50 18.90 Did not advance Georgi Mirtchev 9.40 9.50 18.90 Did not advance Russell Mitchell 9.25 9.65 18.90 Did not advance Frederic Orendi 9.40 9.50 18.90 Did not advance 42 Eugen Ekman 9.35 9.50 18.85 Did not advance Gottlieb Fassler 9.40 9.45 18.85 Did not advance Olli Laiho 9.45 9.40 18.85 Did not advance John Mulhall 9.45 9.40 18.85 Did not advance Aleksander Rokosa 9.45 9.40 18.85 Did not advance Gheorghe Tohaneanu 9.35 9.50 18.85 Did not advance 48 Pavel Gajdos 9.35 9.45 18.80 Did not advance Velik Kapsasov 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance Alojz Petrovic 9.35 9.45 18.80 Did not advance Arthur Shurlock 9.35 9.45 18.80 Did not advance Alexandru Szilagyi 9.20 9.60 18.80 Did not advance Gregor Weiss 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance 54 Larry Banner 9.30 9.45 18.75 Did not advance Michel Bouchonnet 9.25 9.50 18.75 Did not advance Ivan Caklec 9.35 9.40 18.75 Did not advance Giovanni Carminucci 9.25 9.50 18.75 Did not advance Liuben Christov 9.40 9.35 18.75 Did not advance Luigi Cimnaghi 9.25 9.50 18.75 Did not advance Anton Kadar 9.30 9.45 18.75 Did not advance Karel Klecka 9.20 9.55 18.75 Did not advance Erwin Koppe 9.40 9.35 18.75 Did not advance Wilhelm Kubica 9.50 9.25 18.75 Did not advance Gilbert Larose 9.25 9.50 18.75 Did not advance Martin Srot 9.35 9.40 18.75 Did not advance Josy Stoffel 9.30 9.45 18.75 Did not advance William Thoresson 9.30 9.45 18.75 Did not advance Harald Wigaard 9.30 9.45 18.75 Did not advance 69 Todor Batchvarov 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance Pasquale Carminucci 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance Bernard Fauqueux 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance Otto Kestola 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance Lee Kwang Jae 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance Stig Lindevall 9.25 9.45 18.70 Did not advance Petre Miclaus 9.30 9.40 18.70 Did not advance Niamdawaa Zagdbazar 9.25 9.45 18.70 Did not advance 77 Franz Fah 9.20 9.45 18.65 Did not advance Andres Gonzalez 9.30 9.35 18.65 Did not advance Kang Soo Il 9.10 9.55 18.65 Did not advance Richard Kihn 9.20 9.45 18.65 Did not advance Leif Koorn 9.30 9.35 18.65 Did not advance Mohamed Lazhari 9.30 9.35 18.65 Did not advance Angelo Vicardi 9.25 9.40 18.65 Did not advance 84 Jan Jankowicz 9.30 9.30 18.60 Did not advance Octavio Suarez 9.25 9.35 18.60 Did not advance 86 Bruno Franceschetti 9.15 9.40 18.55 Did not advance Christian Guiffroy 9.25 9.30 18.55 Did not advance Héctor Ramírez 9.25 9.30 18.55 Did not advance Benjamin de Roo 9.30 9.25 18.55 Did not advance 90 Gheorghe Condovici 9.15 9.35 18.50 Did not advance Kim Choong Tai 9.25 9.25 18.50 Did not advance Todor Kondev 9.30 9.20 18.50 Did not advance John Pancott 9.20 9.30 18.50 Did not advance Carlos Pizzini 9.20 9.30 18.50 Did not advance 95 Ronald Barak 9.15 9.30 18.45 Did not advance Janez Brodnik 9.15 9.30 18.45 Did not advance Kauko Heikkinen 9.10 9.35 18.45 Did not advance Andrzej Konopka 9.20 9.25 18.45 Did not advance Suh Jae Kyu 9.00 9.45 18.45 Did not advance 100 Ladislav Pazdera 9.10 9.30 18.40 Did not advance Frederick Trainer 9.05 9.35 18.40 Did not advance Lajos Varga 9.15 9.25 18.40 Did not advance 103 Jalal Bazargan 9.05 9.30 18.35 Did not advance Graham Bond 9.30 9.05 18.35 Did not advance 105 Gyozo Cser 9.00 9.30 18.30 Did not advance 106 Barry Cheales 9.15 9.10 18.25 Did not advance Chung Yi Kwang 9.30 8.95 18.25 Did not advance Kim Kwang Duk 8.90 9.35 18.25 Did not advance 109 Jan Thai San 9.25 8.90 18.15 Did not advance Felix Padron 9.05 9.10 18.15 Did not advance Nenad Vidovic 8.85 9.30 18.15 Did not advance 112 Lai Chu Long 9.00 9.10 18.10 Did not advance 113 Ady Stefanetti 8.85 9.20 18.05 Did not advance 114 D. Mondal 8.90 9.00 17.90 Did not advance Wang Shian Ming 9.00 8.90 17.90 Did not advance 116 Carlos Garcia 8.65 9.20 17.85 Did not advance Pablo Hernandez 9.10 8.75 17.85 Did not advance Douglas McLennon 8.95 8.90 17.85 Did not advance 119 Trilok Singh 8.70 9.10 17.80 Did not advance 120 Marcus Faulks 9.25 8.45 17.70 Did not advance 121 Liuh Reng Suhn 8.95 8.70 17.65 Did not advance 122 Uih Yah Torh 8.55 9.00 17.55 Did not advance 123 Lee Bu Ti 9.20 8.10 17.30 Did not advance 124 Vithal Karande 8.80 8.40 17.20 Did not advance 125 Y. More 8.65 8.50 17.15 Did not advance 126 B. Bhosle 7.90 8.75 16.65 Did not advance 127 Mohamed Ibrahim 9.20 — 9.20 Did not advance 128 Fortunato Payao 7.50 — 7.50 Did not advance 129 Demetrio Pastrana 5.00 — 5.00 Did not advance 130 Anand Ram — — 0.00 Did not advance

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