Pommelled Horse, Men

As the winner of the two most recent World Championships, and the silver medalist in the two before that, Krisztián Berki of Hungary entered the men’s pommelled horse event at the 2012 Summer Olympics as the favorite to win gold. His strongest challenger was hometown favorite Louis Smith, 2010 world runner-up and bronze medalist at the 2007 and 2011 World Championships and the 2008 Olympics. Cyril Tommasone of France, silver medalist at the most recent World Championships, was a favored contender for the third podium spot, but would have to deal with a strong overall pool of competitors to earn a medal.

Smith dominated the qualifications by posting the highest scores for both difficulty and execution, and finishing nearly half a point ahead of Tommasone. Vid Hidvégi of Hungary was third while his compatriot Berki finished in fifth, behind Alberto Busnari of Italy who, despite having competed in every Olympic gymnastics tournament since 2000, was participating in his first final. Vitaliy Nakonechniy of Ukraine was sixth and Max Whitlock of Great Britain, the 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medalist, slipped into the finals in eighth place after tying David Belyavsky of Russia and Mykola Kuksenkov of Ukraine on points. The tie-breaker for the final two spots was the best execution score, and Belyavsky and Whitlock were 0.2 and 0.1 points ahead of Kuksenkov respectively. In the finals Berki performed an outstanding routine, moving into first place with a score of 16.066 and eclipsing the competition with 9.166 execution points. Whitlock was fairly distant behind him in second place, with 15.600 points. With only Smith left to go, Great Britain was guaranteed at least one medal, but Smith upped his difficulty and brought a second one by tying Berki’s score. Although the Hungarian was crowned Olympic champion by virtue of his higher execution score, the home nation was thrilled at their success in the event, having won their first silver medal in men’s gymnastics since 1908, after Walter Tysall’s placement in the individual all-around.