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| Event type

Horse Vault, Men

Date28 July – 5 August 2012
StatusOlympic
LocationNorth Greenwich Arena, Greenwich, London
Participants17 from 14 countries

South Korea’s Yang Hak-Seon, reigning World and Asian Games Champion, was the favorite to win gold in the men’s horse vault at the 2012 Summer Olympics, particularly after his closest rival Thomas Bouhail of France, 2008 Olympic silver medalist, 2009 and 2011 European Champion, and 2010 World Champion, suffered an injury to his leg that made his return to gymnastics uncertain. Flavius Koczi of Romania, the reigning European Champion and the 2009 world runner-up, was a potential medal favorite, but no one was seen as a true obstacle on the South Korean’s path to the Olympic crown. In the qualification round, however, Denis Ablyazin of Russia, bronze medalist in the vault at the most recent European Championships and the floor exercise at the London Games, posted the highest score, with 16.366 to Yang’s 16.333. Enrique González of Chile, who had already made history by placing fourth in the floor exercises in his country’s first appearance in Olympic gymnastics, finished a surprising third in the qualifications.

Koczi went first in the final, suffering penalties and finishing with a score of 15.633, which would not have been sufficient to qualify in the earlier round. It was not until halfway through the competition that a true bar was set by Ihor Radivilov of Ukraine, the 2012 European runner-up, with a total of 16.316. He was surpassed by Ablyazin, who posted 16.399, while González slid into third place with 16.183. Yang was the final gymnast and he chose the highest-difficult vault of the competition, 7.400, for his opener, but stepped forwards on his landing and received a low execution score of 9.066. His score for the first was still 16.466, however, higher than any other. Now in a good position to win gold, he eased the difficulty of his second vault down to 7.000, but performed it with sterling execution and earned a score of 16.600, more than enough to become South Korea’s first Olympic gymnastics champion.

PosNrGymnastNOCQualificationFinal
1Yang Hak-SeonKOR16.333 (2)16.533 (1)Gold
2191Denis AblyazinRUS16.366 (1)16.399 (2)Silver
3203Ihor RadivilovUKR15.799 (8)16.316 (3)Bronze
4248Tomás GonzálezCHI16.149 (3)16.183 (4)
5214Sam MikulakUSA16.083 (4)16.050 (5)
6111Isaac BotellaESP15.833 (7)15.866 (6)
7185Flavius KocziROU15.949 (6)15.633 (7)
8134Kristian ThomasGBR15.983 (5)15.533 (8)
9 r1/2228Dzmitry KaspiarovichBLR15.666 (9)
10 r1/2151Matteo AngiolettiITA15.583 (10)
11 r1/2205Oleh VerniaievUKR15.549 (11)
12 r1/2237Mohamed El-SahartyEGY15.483 (12)
13 r1/2247Shek Wai HungHKG15.466 (13)
14 r1/2211Jake DaltonUSA15.333 (14)
15 r1/2238Artur DavtyanARM14.833 (15)
16 r1/2174Kim Su-MyeonKOR14.412 (16)
17 r1/2165Koji YamamuroJPN14.266 (17)

Qualification (28 July 2012 — 11:00)

Top twenty-four (maximum two per nation) qualified for the final. Mean score of two final jumps determined placement.

Difficulty Judge 1Enrique SalanitroARG
Difficulty Judge 2Alain MacchiaFRA
Execution Judge 1Gabriel VargaSVK
Execution Judge 2Zbigniew PelcPOL
Execution Judge 3Rodrigo LagosCHI
Execution Judge 4Robson CaballeroBRA
Execution Judge 5Timur AmirbekovKAZ
Execution Reference Judge 1Chen Ming-YaoTPE
Execution Reference Judge 2Sotiris StylianouCYP
Line JudgeLee WoollsGBR
PosGymnastNOCPointsVault 1Vault 2
1Denis AblyazinRUS16.36616.300 (4)16.433 (2)Q
2Yang Hak-SeonKOR16.33316.233 (7)16.433 (1)Q
3Tomás GonzálezCHI16.14916.433 (1)15.866 (4)Q
4Sam MikulakUSA16.08316.300 (5)15.866 (5)Q
5Kristian ThomasGBR15.98316.200 (8)15.766 (8)Q
6Flavius KocziROU15.94916.066 (9)15.833 (6)Q
7Isaac BotellaESP15.83315.866 (11)15.800 (7)Q
8Ihor RadivilovUKR15.79916.266 (6)15.333 (12)Q
9Dzmitry KaspiarovichBLR15.66616.333 (=2)15.000 (13)
10Matteo AngiolettiITA15.58315.566 (13)15.600 (9)
11Oleh VerniaievUKR15.54916.333 (=2)14.766 (14)
12Mohamed El-SahartyEGY15.48315.466 (14)15.500 (=10)
13Shek Wai HungHKG15.46614.900 (16)16.033 (3)
14Jake DaltonUSA15.33315.900 (10)14.766 (15)
15Artur DavtyanARM14.83314.166 (17)15.500 (=10)
16Kim Su-MyeonKOR14.41215.666 (12)13.158 (17)
17Koji YamamuroJPN14.26615.333 (15)13.200 (16)

Final (5 August 2012 — 15:41)

Difficulty Judge 1István BércziHUN
Difficulty Judge 2Vincent ReimeringNED
Execution Judge 1Yuen Ka-KeungHKG
Execution Judge 2Jaime CorredorCOL
Execution Judge 3Artūrs MickevičsLAT
Execution Judge 4Zbigniew PelcPOL
Execution Judge 5Javier ColónPUR
Execution Reference Judge 1Enes Hodžić LedererSLO
Execution Reference Judge 2Jorge SandovalVEN
Time JudgeSimon MooreGBR
Line Judge 1Ross BrewerGBR
Line Judge 2Julian Niven ReedGBR
PosGymnastNOCPointsVault 1Vault 2
1Yang Hak-SeonKOR16.53316.466 (1)16.600 (1)
2Denis AblyazinRUS16.39916.433 (2)16.366 (2)
3Ihor RadivilovUKR16.31616.400 (=3)16.233 (3)
4Tomás GonzálezCHI16.18316.400 (=3)15.966 (5)
5Sam MikulakUSA16.05016.100 (7)16.000 (4)
6Isaac BotellaESP15.86615.900 (8)15.833 (6)
7Flavius KocziROU15.63316.100 (6)15.166 (7)
8Kristian ThomasGBR15.53316.366 (5)14.700 (8)