The men's pommel horse competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. The qualification and final rounds took place on July 18, 20, and 23rd at the Montreal Forum. There were 90 competitors from 20 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts while other nations could have up to 3 gymnasts. The event was won by Zoltán Magyar of Hungary, the nation's first victory in the pommel horse since 1932 (and second overall). Eizo Kenmotsu of Japan was the fifth man to win multiple medals in the event, adding a silver to his 1972 bronze. Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union and Michael Nikolay of East Germany tied for third, each receiving bronze medals; this was East Germany's first medal in the event while the Soviet Union stretched its podium streak to seven Games.

Background

This was the 14th 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). Two of the six finalists from 1972 returned: silver medalist Sawao Kato and bronze medalist Eizo Kenmotsu of Japan. Zoltán Magyar of Hungary was the reigning world champion and the favorite in the event, with Nikolai Andrianov of the Soviet Union runner-up and Kenmotsu third in 1974.

Israel made its debut in the men's pommel horse. The United States made its 13th 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. 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, except that nations were limited to two finalists each; others were ranked 7th through 90th. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 327.

Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date Time Round Sunday, 18 July 1976 12:3019:1521:00 Preliminary: Compulsory Tuesday, 20 July 1976 15:0019:0020:45 Preliminary: Voluntary Friday, 23 July 1976 19:30 Final

Results

Ninety gymnasts competed in the compulsory and optional rounds on July 18 and 20. The six highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on July 23. Each country was limited to two competitors in the final. Half of the points earned by each gymnast during both the compulsory and optional rounds carried over to the final. This constitutes the "prelim" score.

Rank Gymnast Nation Preliminary Final Compulsory Voluntary Total Prelim. Final Total Zoltán Magyar 9.75 9.85 19.60 9.800 9.900 19.700 Eizo Kenmotsu 9.70 9.85 19.55 9.775 9.800 19.575 Nikolai Andrianov 9.70 9.75 19.45 9.725 9.800 19.525 Michael Nikolay 9.60 9.85 19.45 9.725 9.800 19.525 5 Sawao Kato 9.60 9.80 19.40 9.700 9.700 19.400 6 Alexander Dityatin 9.65 9.65 19.30 9.650 9.700 19.350 7 Hiroshi Kajiyama 9.50 9.75 19.25 Did not advance 8 Mitsuo Tsukahara 9.50 9.70 19.20 Did not advance 9 Eberhard Gienger 9.50 9.60 19.10 Did not advance 10 Vladimir Marchenko 9.60 9.45 19.05 Did not advance 11 Rainer Hanschke 9.50 9.50 19.00 Did not advance Hisato Igarashi 9.40 9.60 19.00 Did not advance Gennady Krysin 9.45 9.55 19.00 Did not advance Vladimir Markelov 9.60 9.40 19.00 Did not advance Imre Molnar 9.45 9.55 19.00 Did not advance 16 Kurt Thomas 9.25 9.70 18.95 Did not advance 17 Philippe Gaille 9.35 9.55 18.90 Did not advance Vladimir Tikhonov 9.40 9.50 18.90 Did not advance 19 Henri Boerio 9.30 9.55 18.85 Did not advance Roberto Richards 9.35 9.50 18.85 Did not advance 21 Danuţ Grecu 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance Wolfgang Klotz 9.45 9.35 18.80 Did not advance 23 Bernd Jäger 9.30 9.45 18.75 Did not advance Bernhard Locher 9.25 9.50 18.75 Did not advance 25 Marshall Avener 9.20 9.50 18.70 Did not advance Ferenc Donath 9.25 9.45 18.70 Did not advance Andrzej Szajna 9.20 9.50 18.70 Did not advance 28 Gustav Tannenberger 9.15 9.50 18.65 Did not advance 29 Shun Fujimoto 9.10 9.50 18.60 Did not advance 30 Roland Brückner 9.35 9.20 18.55 Did not advance Lutz Mack 9.30 9.25 18.55 Did not advance 32 Béla Laufer 9.05 9.45 18.50 Did not advance Jiri Tabak 9.20 9.30 18.50 Did not advance 34 Michel Boutard 8.90 9.55 18.45 Did not advance Miloslav Netusil 9.10 9.35 18.45 Did not advance Volker Rohrwick 9.15 9.30 18.45 Did not advance Wayne Young 9.05 9.40 18.45 Did not advance 38 Reinhard Dietze 9.10 9.30 18.40 Did not advance Peter Kormann 9.00 9.40 18.40 Did not advance 40 Ueli Bachmann 9.05 9.30 18.35 Did not advance Marian Pieczka 9.10 9.25 18.35 Did not advance Jan Zoulík 9.05 9.30 18.35 Did not advance 43 Robert Bretscher 8.80 9.50 18.30 Did not advance Stoyan Delchev 9.00 9.30 18.30 Did not advance Árpád Farkas 9.10 9.20 18.30 Did not advance 46 Edgar Jorek 9.10 9.15 18.25 Did not advance Ian Neale 9.00 9.25 18.25 Did not advance Werner Steinmetz 9.00 9.25 18.25 Did not advance 49 Nicolae Oprescu 9.00 9.20 18.20 Did not advance Reinhard Ritter 8.75 9.45 18.20 Did not advance 51 Patrick Boutet 8.80 9.35 18.15 Did not advance Sorin Cepoi 8.90 9.25 18.15 Did not advance Nelson Fernández 8.95 9.20 18.15 Did not advance 54 Dimitrios Janulidis 8.90 9.20 18.10 Did not advance Willi Moy 8.85 9.25 18.10 Did not advance Peter Rohner 9.00 9.10 18.10 Did not advance 57 Tom Beach 8.85 9.20 18.05 Did not advance 58 Mihai Borş 8.75 9.25 18.00 Did not advance Ion Checicheş 8.80 9.20 18.00 Did not advance 60 Peter Lloyd 8.80 9.15 17.95 Did not advance 61 Keith Carter 9.00 8.85 17.85 Did not advance Eric Koloko 9.10 8.75 17.85 Did not advance Dov Lupi 8.95 8.90 17.85 Did not advance Maurizio Montesi 8.85 9.00 17.85 Did not advance Vladislav Nehasil 8.75 9.10 17.85 Did not advance 66 Ştefan Gal 9.10 8.70 17.80 Did not advance Łukasz Uhma 8.65 9.15 17.80 Did not advance 68 Philip Delesalle 9.20 8.50 17.70 Did not advance Andrey Keranov 8.65 9.05 17.70 Did not advance Maurizio Milanetto 8.70 9.00 17.70 Did not advance 71 Ole Benediktson 8.40 9.25 17.65 Did not advance Pierre Leclerc 8.65 9.00 17.65 Did not advance 73 Grzegorz Ciastek 8.15 9.30 17.45 Did not advance 74 Tommy Wilson 8.25 9.15 17.40 Did not advance 75 Imre Bánrévi 9.20 8.15 17.35 Did not advance José de la Casa 8.50 8.85 17.35 Did not advance 77 Roman Tkaczyk 9.10 8.20 17.30 Did not advance 78 Bart Conner 8.55 8.70 17.25 Did not advance 79 Fernando Bertrand 8.55 8.60 17.15 Did not advance 80 Mariusz Zasada 8.05 9.05 17.10 Did not advance 81 Toncho Todorov 8.25 8.80 17.05 Did not advance 82 Zhivko Rusev 8.40 8.60 17.00 Did not advance Georgi Todorov 8.40 8.60 17.00 Did not advance Angelo Zucca 9.00 8.00 17.00 Did not advance 85 Phil Cheetham 8.15 8.45 16.60 Did not advance 86 Gabriel Calvo 7.60 8.95 16.55 Did not advance Dimitar Koychev 7.65 8.90 16.55 Did not advance 88 Bernard Decoux 7.45 9.00 16.45 Did not advance 89 Jeff Davis 7.40 8.75 16.15 Did not advance 90 Armin Vock 9.10 0.00 9.10 Did not advance — Jorge Cuervo Did not advance

References

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