Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's horizontal bar

The men's horizontal bar competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. There were 63 competitors from 18 nations (down sharply from the 185 gymnasts in 1952), with nations in the team competition having up to 6 gymnasts and other nations entering up to 3 gymnasts.[1] The event was won by Takashi Ono of Japan, with his countryman Masao Takemoto taking bronze. Silver went to Yuri Titov of the Soviet Union. Japan and the Soviet Union each earned their first horizontal bar medals.

Men's horizontal bar
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Medal presentation: Titov, Ono, and Takemoto
VenueFestival Hall
Dates3–7 December
Competitors63 from 18 nations
Winning score19.60
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Takashi Ono
 Japan
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Yuri Titov
 Soviet Union
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Masao Takemoto
 Japan
← 1952
1960 →

Background

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This was the ninth 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 top 10 gymnasts from 1952 returned: fifth-place finisher Viktor Chukarin of the Soviet Union, seventh-place finisher Helmut Bantz of Germany, and ninth-place finishers Berndt Lindfors of Finland and Valentin Muratov of the Soviet Union. Muratov had won the 1954 world championship, with Bantz and Boris Shakhlin of the Soviet Union tying for second.[1]

Australia and Canada each made their debut in the men's horizontal bar; East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany for the first time. The United States made its eighth appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 Games.

Competition format

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The gymnastics format continued to use the aggregation format, mostly following the scoring tweaks made in 1952. Each nation entered either 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 2 exercise scores were summed to give an apparatus total. No separate finals were contested.

Exercise scores ranged from 0 to 10 and apparatus scores from 0 to 20.[2]

Schedule

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All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round
Monday, 3 December 1956
Tuesday, 4 December 1956
Wednesday, 5 December 1956
Thursday, 6 December 1956
Friday, 7 December 1956
8:00 Final

Results

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Rank Gymnast Nation Compulsory Voluntary Total
  Takashi Ono   Japan 9.75 9.85 19.60
  Yury Titov   Soviet Union 9.70 9.70 19.40
  Masao Takemoto   Japan 9.70 9.60 19.30
4 Viktor Chukarin   Soviet Union 9.55 9.70 19.25
Pavel Stolbov   Soviet Union 9.55 9.70 19.25
6 Helmut Bantz   United Team of Germany 9.50 9.65 19.15
7 Jack Beckner   United States 9.40 9.60 19.00
8 Albert Azaryan   Soviet Union 9.40 9.55 18.95
9 Ferdinand Daniš   Czechoslovakia 9.45 9.40 18.85
10 Stoyan Stoyanov   Bulgaria 9.35 9.45 18.80
Raymond Dot   France 9.40 9.40 18.80
Zdeněk Růžička   Czechoslovakia 9.45 9.35 18.80
13 Shinsaku Tsukawaki   Japan 9.30 9.45 18.75
Boris Shakhlin   Soviet Union 9.30 9.45 18.75
Akira Kono   Japan 9.30 9.45 18.75
Velik Kapsazov   Bulgaria 9.40 9.35 18.75
Abie Grossfeld   United States 9.35 9.40 18.75
18 Kalevi Suoniemi   Finland 9.25 9.45 18.70
Raimo Heinonen   Finland 9.25 9.45 18.70
Josef Škvor   Czechoslovakia 9.20 9.50 18.70
Theo Wied   United Team of Germany 9.25 9.45 18.70
22 Berndt Lindfors   Finland 9.20 9.45 18.65
Charles Simms   United States 9.20 9.45 18.65
Jakob Kiefer   United Team of Germany 9.25 9.40 18.65
25 Masami Kubota   Japan 9.20 9.40 18.60
Valentin Muratov   Soviet Union 9.55 9.05 18.60
27 Nobuyuki Aihara   Japan 9.30 9.25 18.55
28 Jean Guillou   France 9.30 9.20 18.50
29 Robert Klein   United Team of Germany 9.25 9.20 18.45
Josy Stoffel   Luxembourg 9.25 9.20 18.45
Dick Beckner   United States 9.10 9.35 18.45
32 Jaroslav Bím   Czechoslovakia 9.05 9.30 18.35
33 Jaroslav Mikoška   Czechoslovakia 9.35 8.95 18.30
Vladimír Kejř   Czechoslovakia 9.20 9.10 18.30
35 Onni Lappalainen   Finland 9.00 9.25 18.25
36 Nik Stuart   Great Britain 9.15 9.05 18.20
37 Olavi Leimuvirta   Finland 8.95 9.20 18.15
Erich Wied   United Team of Germany 8.65 9.50 18.15
39 Mincho Todorov   Bulgaria 9.00 9.10 18.10
40 Kurt Wigartz   Sweden 9.20 8.85 18.05
Armando Vega   United States 9.15 8.90 18.05
42 Martti Mansikka   Finland 8.90 9.10 18.00
43 Ronnie Lombard   South Africa 9.05 8.90 17.95
44 Attila Takács   Hungary 9.45 8.45 17.90
Michel Mathiot   France 9.15 8.75 17.90
46 Bill Tom   United States 8.80 9.05 17.85
47 William Thoresson   Sweden 9.05 8.75 17.80
48 Hans Pfann   United Team of Germany 8.55 9.20 17.75
Frank Turner   Great Britain 8.95 8.80 17.75
50 Graham Bond   Australia 8.90 8.75 17.65
51 János Héder   Hungary 9.20 8.25 17.45
52 Jack Wells   South Africa 8.50 8.70 17.20
53 Ed Gagnier   Canada 7.65 8.45 16.10
54 David Gourlay   Australia 8.10 7.90 16.00
55 Rafael Lecuona   Cuba 6.75 7.80 14.55
56 Bruce Sharp   Australia 7.30 6.65 13.95
57 John Lees   Australia 7.70 6.10 13.80
58 Brian Blackburn   Australia 8.20 5.00 13.20
59 Pritam Singh   India 5.80 5.75 11.55
60 Sham Lal   India 4.00 6.50 10.50
61 Anant Ram   India 8.20 1.50 9.70
62 Hans Sauter   Austria 9.20 9.20
63 Noel Punton   Australia 4.50 4.00 8.50

References

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  1. ^ a b "Horizontal Bar, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  2. ^ Official Report, p. 472.