The men's horizontal bar competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The qualification and final rounds took place on August 27, 29 and September 1 at the Olympiahalle. There were 113 competitors from 26 nations; nations entering the team event had 6 gymnasts while other nations could have up to 3 gymnasts. Japan reached the height of its success in the event this year, thoroughly dominating the event by taking the top five places (with the final Japanese gymnast placing 10th). Mitsuo Tsukahara was the winner, with Sawao Kato second and Shigeru Kasamatsu third. Japan had now won the event in four of the last five Games. The only finalist from outside Japan was Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union.

Background

This was the 13th 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). Four of the six finalists from 1968 returned: joint gold medalists Mikhail Voronin of the Soviet Union and Akinori Nakayama of Japan, bronze medalist Eizo Kenmotsu of Japan, and fourth-place finisher Klaus Köste of East Germany. Kenmotsu was the reigning (1970) world champion, with Nakayama the runner-up and Köste tied with Takuji Hayata of Japan (who was not on the Munich Olympic team).

Liechtenstein, New Zealand, and North Korea each made their debut in the men's horizontal bar. The United States made its 12th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 Games.

Competition format

Each nation entered a team of six gymnasts or up to three 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. (One gymnast who entered the all-around competition did not perform on the vault.) 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 113th. Half of the scores from the preliminary carried over to the final.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 192.

Schedule

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Date Time Round Monday, 27 August 1972 11:1519:00 Preliminary: Compulsory Wednesday, 29 August 1972 10:0018:00 Preliminary: Voluntary Saturday, 1 September 1972 19:30 Final

Results

One-hundred thirteen gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on August 27 and 29. The six highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on September 1.

Rank Gymnast Nation Preliminary Final Compulsory Voluntary Total Prelim. Final Total Mitsuo Tsukahara 9.75 9.90 19.65 9.825 9.900 19.725 Sawao Kato 9.85 9.70 19.55 9.775 9.750 19.525 Shigeru Kasamatsu 9.75 9.75 19.50 9.750 9.700 19.450 4 Eizo Kenmotsu 9.65 9.75 19.40 9.700 9.650 19.350 5 Akinori Nakayama 9.65 9.60 19.25 9.625 9.600 19.225 6 Nikolai Andrianov 9.60 9.60 19.20 9.600 9.500 19.100 7 Wolfgang Thüne 9.50 9.65 19.15 Did not advance 8 Eberhard Gienger 9.40 9.65 19.05 Did not advance Edvard Mikaelian 9.45 9.60 19.05 Did not advance 10 Matthias Brehme 9.30 9.55 18.85 Did not advance Teruichi Okamura 9.40 9.45 18.85 Did not advance Vladimir Schukin 9.35 9.50 18.85 Did not advance Mikhail Voronin 9.35 9.50 18.85 Did not advance 14 Li Song-sob 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance 15 Klaus Köste 9.20 9.55 18.75 Did not advance Reinhard Rychly 9.30 9.45 18.75 Did not advance Andrzej Szajna 9.15 9.60 18.75 Did not advance 18 Günter Spies 9.25 9.40 18.65 Did not advance 19 Alexander Maleev 9.20 9.35 18.55 Did not advance 20 Wolfgang Klotz 9.05 9.45 18.50 Did not advance 21 Henri Boërio 9.05 9.40 18.45 Did not advance Robert Bretscher 9.15 9.30 18.45 Did not advance Steven Hug 9.15 9.30 18.45 Did not advance Kim Song-il 9.10 9.35 18.45 Did not advance Jürgen Paeke 9.10 9.35 18.45 Did not advance 26 Kim Song-yu 9.00 9.40 18.40 Did not advance Viktor Klimenko 9.15 9.25 18.40 Did not advance Mikolaj Kubica 8.95 9.45 18.40 Did not advance Constantin Petrescu 9.00 9.40 18.40 Did not advance 30 Janez Brodnik 9.05 9.30 18.35 Did not advance 31 Walter Mossinger 8.90 9.35 18.25 Did not advance 32 Christian Guiffroy 8.90 9.30 18.20 Did not advance Imre Molnár 8.90 9.30 18.20 Did not advance Peter Rohner 8.85 9.35 18.20 Did not advance 35 George Greenfield 8.80 9.35 18.15 Did not advance Zoltán Magyar 8.85 9.30 18.15 Did not advance Petre Mihaiuc 8.90 9.25 18.15 Did not advance 38 Ladislav Morava 8.65 9.45 18.10 Did not advance 39 Miloš Vratič 8.80 9.25 18.05 Did not advance Makoto Sakamoto 9.20 8.85 18.05 Did not advance 41 Heinz Häussler 8.90 9.10 18.00 Did not advance 42 Roberto Léon Richards 8.60 9.35 17.95 Did not advance Jorge Rodriguez 8.70 9.25 17.95 Did not advance Pavel Stanovsky 8.75 9.20 17.95 Did not advance 45 Edwin Greutmann 8.75 9.15 17.90 Did not advance Mauno Nissinen 8.80 9.10 17.90 Did not advance Mieczyslaw Strzalka 8.65 9.25 17.90 Did not advance 48 Wilhelm Kubica 8.45 9.40 17.85 Did not advance 49 Jerzy Kruza 8.55 9.25 17.80 Did not advance 50 Philippe Gaille 8.85 8.90 17.75 Did not advance Milenko Kersnic 8.60 9.15 17.75 Did not advance Sylwester Kubica 8.25 9.50 17.75 Did not advance Jean-Pierre Miens 8.55 9.20 17.75 Did not advance Vladislav Nehasil 8.50 9.25 17.75 Did not advance Shin Heung-do 8.70 9.05 17.75 Did not advance 56 Franco Donega 8.55 9.15 17.70 Did not advance Bernd Effing 9.05 8.65 17.70 Did not advance Dan Grecu 8.90 8.80 17.70 Did not advance István Kiss 8.70 9.00 17.70 Did not advance 60 René Badell 8.55 9.05 17.60 Did not advance Luigi Coppa 8.65 8.95 17.60 Did not advance Christian Deuza 8.80 8.80 17.60 Did not advance Jo Jong-ryol 8.70 8.90 17.60 Did not advance Nicolae Oprescu 8.55 9.05 17.60 Did not advance Gheorghe Paunescu 8.65 8.95 17.60 Did not advance Geno Radev 8.60 9.00 17.60 Did not advance 67 Bruno Banzer 8.50 9.05 17.55 Did not advance Béla Herczeg 8.70 8.85 17.55 Did not advance Stefan Zoev 8.45 9.10 17.55 Did not advance 70 Emilio Sagre 8.55 8.90 17.45 Did not advance 71 Ho Yun-hang 8.25 9.15 17.40 Did not advance 72 Antal Kisteleki 8.80 8.50 17.30 Did not advance 73 Dimitar Koychev 8.40 8.85 17.25 Did not advance Drago Sostaric 8.45 8.80 17.25 Did not advance 75 Max Brühwiler 8.55 8.65 17.20 Did not advance Jorge Cuervo 7.70 9.50 17.20 Did not advance Agustin Sandoval 8.70 8.50 17.20 Did not advance 78 Ivica Hmjelovac 8.30 8.85 17.15 Did not advance Bozhidar Iliev 8.25 8.90 17.15 Did not advance Zoran Ivanovic 8.40 8.75 17.15 Did not advance 81 Mircea Gheorghiu 8.00 9.10 17.10 Did not advance 82 Marshall Avener 8.15 8.90 17.05 Did not advance Jifi Fejtek 7.85 9.20 17.05 Did not advance 84 István Bérczi 8.55 8.45 17.00 Did not advance 85 Peter Lloyd 8.20 8.70 16.90 Did not advance 86 Dimitar Dimitrov 8.00 8.75 16.75 Did not advance Bernard Farjat 8.05 8.70 16.75 Did not advance 88 Steve Mitruk 8.10 8.50 16.60 Did not advance 89 Jim Culhane Jr. 8.25 8.30 16.55 Did not advance Maurizio Milanetto 8.70 7.85 16.55 Did not advance 91 Georges Guelzec 8.05 8.45 16.50 Did not advance Reinhard Ritter 8.70 7.80 16.50 Did not advance 93 Luis Ramirez 7.80 8.55 16.35 Did not advance 94 Tore Lie 7.65 8.65 16.30 Did not advance 95 Stan Wild 7.60 8.50 16.10 Did not advance 96 Adolfo Lampronti 7.80 8.25 16.05 Did not advance 97 André Simard 7.70 8.25 15.95 Did not advance 98 José Ginés 7.25 8.55 15.80 Did not advance 99 Ole Benediktson 7.65 8.10 15.75 Did not advance Cecilio Ugarte 7.30 8.45 15.75 Did not advance 101 Rogelio Mendoza 7.60 8.10 15.70 Did not advance 102 John Crosby Jr. 7.00 8.55 15.55 Did not advance 103 Fedele Spatazza 7.75 7.75 15.50 Did not advance 104 Ivan Kondev 7.20 8.15 15.35 Did not advance 105 Ian Clarke 7.10 8.20 15.30 Did not advance Bohumil Mudrik 6.60 8.70 15.30 Did not advance 107 Eddie Arnold 7.65 7.60 15.25 Did not advance 108 Carmine Luppino 6.35 8.80 15.15 Did not advance 109 Bill Norgrave 6.85 8.15 15.00 Did not advance 110 Terry Sale 6.15 8.40 14.55 Did not advance 111 Hans Ettlin 9.05 — 9.05 Did not advance 112 Miloslav Netusil 8.70 — 8.70 Did not advance 113 Bruce Medd 3.90 — 3.90 Did not advance

References

Official Olympic Report www.gymnasticsresults.com www.gymn-forum.net