The men's pommel horse competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. The qualification and final rounds took place on September 18, 20 and 24th at the Olympic Gymnastics Hall. There were 89 competitors from 23 nations, with nations competing in the team event having 6 gymnasts and other nations having up to 3 gymnasts. For the second time (the first was in 1948), the event ended in a three-way tie for first place. Dmitry Bilozerchev of the Soviet Union, Zsolt Borkai of Hungary, and Lubomir Geraskov of Bulgaria each received a gold medal. It was Bulgaria's first medal in the pommel horse. Hungary had its third gold medal in four Games, with Zoltán Magyar winning in 1976 and 1980 before the nation was part of the Soviet-led boycott in 1984. The Soviets had had an eight-Games medal streak in the event snapped by that boycott; Bilozerchev's medal put the nation back on the podium after that one-Games absence.

Background

This was the 17th 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 eight finalists from 1984 returned: gold medalist Li Ning of China and eighth-place finisher Josef Zellweger of Switzerland. There were two reigning world champions, as Soviet Dmitry Bilozerchev and Hungarian Zsolt Borkai had tied. Bulgarian Lubomir Geraskov was the bronze medalist at the world championships.

Chinese Taipei made its debut in the men's pommel horse. The United States made its 15th appearance, most of any nation; the Americans had missed only the inaugural 1896 pommel horse and the boycotted 1980 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. Half of the preliminary score carried over to the final. The 1984 Games had expanded the number of finalists from six to eight. Nations were still limited to two finalists each. Others were ranked 9th through 89th. Official Report, vol. 2, p. 429.

Schedule

All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)

Date Time Round Sunday, 18 September 1988 Preliminary: Compulsory Tuesday, 20 September 1988 Preliminary: Voluntary Saturday, 24 September 1988 12:30 Final

Results

Eighty-nine gymnasts competed in the pommel horse event during the compulsory and optional rounds on September 18 and 20. The eight highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on September 24. 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 Lubomir Geraskov 9.90 10.00 19.90 9.950 10.000 19.950 Zsolt Borkai 9.90 10.00 19.90 9.950 10.000 19.950 Dmitri Bilozertchev 9.90 10.00 19.90 9.950 10.000 19.950 4 Koichi Mizushima 9.90 10.00 19.90 9.950 9.950 19.900 5 Valeri Liukin 9.85 10.00 19.85 9.925 9.950 19.875 6 Daisuke Nishikawa 9.80 10.00 19.80 9.900 9.950 19.850 7 Sven Tippelt 9.80 9.90 19.70 9.850 9.950 19.800 8 Sylvio Kroll 9.80 9.95 19.75 9.875 9.900 19.775 9 Vladimir Artemov 9.80 9.95 19.75 Did not advance 10 Vladimir Novikov 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance Marian Rizan 9.80 9.90 19.70 Did not advance 12 Sergey Kharkov 9.75 9.90 19.65 Did not advance Toshiharu Sato 9.75 9.90 19.65 Did not advance Dimitar Taskov 9.75 9.90 19.65 Did not advance 15 Marius Gherman 9.80 9.80 19.60 Did not advance Gyorgy Guczoghy 9.70 9.90 19.60 Did not advance Boris Preti 9.70 9.90 19.60 Did not advance Wang Chongsheng 9.75 9.85 19.60 Did not advance 19 Petar Georgiev 9.75 9.80 19.55 Did not advance Kalofer Khristozov 9.65 9.90 19.55 Did not advance Hiroyuki Konishi 9.65 9.90 19.55 Did not advance 22 Ralf Büchner 9.70 9.80 19.50 Did not advance Jury Chechi 9.60 9.90 19.50 Did not advance Kevin Davis 9.70 9.80 19.50 Did not advance Csaba Fajkusz 9.75 9.75 19.50 Did not advance Vladimir Gogoladze 9.70 9.80 19.50 Did not advance Yukio Iketani 9.70 9.80 19.50 Did not advance 28 Mike Beckmann 9.70 9.75 19.45 Did not advance Brad Peters 9.70 9.75 19.45 Did not advance 30 Paolo Bucci 9.50 9.90 19.40 Did not advance Stéphane Cauterman 9.50 9.90 19.40 Did not advance Christian Chevalier 9.60 9.80 19.40 Did not advance Charles Lakes 9.60 9.80 19.40 Did not advance Li Chunyang 9.60 9.80 19.40 Did not advance 35 Nicolae Bejenaru 9.60 9.75 19.35 Did not advance 36 Takahiro Yamada 9.55 9.75 19.30 Did not advance Claude Carmona 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance Ulf Hoffmann 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance Marius Toba 9.60 9.70 19.30 Did not advance 40 Johan Jonasson 9.55 9.70 19.25 Did not advance Jenő Paprika 9.55 9.70 19.25 Did not advance 42 Riccardo Trapella 9.40 9.80 19.20 Did not advance 43 Li Ning 9.80 9.35 19.15 Did not advance Valentin Pîntea 9.50 9.65 19.15 Did not advance Josef Zellweger 9.40 9.75 19.15 Did not advance 46 Stoyko Gochev 9.35 9.75 19.10 Did not advance Patrick Mattioni 9.30 9.80 19.10 Did not advance Alan Nolet 9.55 9.55 19.10 Did not advance Thierry Pecqueux 9.40 9.70 19.10 Did not advance Lance Ringnald 9.40 9.70 19.10 Did not advance 51 Lorne Bobkin 9.40 9.65 19.05 Did not advance Lou Yun 9.20 9.85 19.05 Did not advance Hélder Pinheiro 9.45 9.60 19.05 Did not advance Gabriele Sala 9.35 9.70 19.05 Did not advance Wes Suter 9.45 9.60 19.05 Did not advance 56 Ralph Kern 9.40 9.60 19.00 Did not advance Deyan Kolev 9.50 9.50 19.00 Did not advance Xu Zhiqiang 9.70 9.30 19.00 Did not advance 59 Holger Behrendt 9.70 9.25 18.95 Did not advance Jürgen Brümmer 9.35 9.60 18.95 Did not advance Philippe Chartrand 9.35 9.60 18.95 Did not advance Adrian Sandu 9.70 9.25 18.95 Did not advance 63 Dominick Minicucci 9.30 9.60 18.90 Did not advance Andreas Wecker 9.05 9.85 18.90 Did not advance Daniel Winkler 9.40 9.50 18.90 Did not advance 66 Guo Linxian 9.10 9.75 18.85 Did not advance Zsolt Horváth 9.55 9.30 18.85 Did not advance James Rozon 9.35 9.50 18.85 Did not advance 69 Vittorio Allievi 9.00 9.80 18.80 Did not advance Bruno Cavelti 9.30 9.50 18.80 Did not advance Bernhard Simmelbauer 9.20 9.60 18.80 Did not advance 72 Curtis Hibbert 9.60 9.15 18.75 Did not advance Andrew Morris 9.20 9.55 18.75 Did not advance 74 Kenneth Meredith 9.15 9.55 18.70 Did not advance 75 Andreas Aguilar 9.50 9.10 18.60 Did not advance Park Jong-Hoon 9.45 9.15 18.60 Did not advance Alfonso Rodríguez 9.05 9.55 18.60 Did not advance 78 Frédéric Longuepée 9.30 9.25 18.55 Did not advance 79 Scott Johnson 8.85 9.65 18.50 Did not advance Jože Kolman 9.30 9.20 18.50 Did not advance 81 Ju Yeong-sam 9.65 8.80 18.45 Did not advance Miguel Ángel Rubio 9.45 9.00 18.45 Did not advance 83 Álvaro Montesinos 9.30 8.95 18.25 Did not advance 84 Chang Chao-chun 8.75 9.30 18.05 Did not advance 85 Terry Bartlett 9.35 8.60 17.95 Did not advance 86 Song Yu-jin 8.55 9.00 17.55 Did not advance Gil Pinto 8.45 9.10 17.55 Did not advance 88 Tony Piñeda 8.75 8.30 17.05 Did not advance 89 Balázs Tóth 9.70 0.00 9.70 Did not advance

References

Official Olympic Report www.gymnasticsresults.com