Horse Vault, Men

The 2019 world champion Nikita Nagorny (ROC) qualified in third place for the vault final. Korea’s Sin Jae-Hwan headed the qualifiers with Armenia’s Artur Davtyan, who had recovered from a back injury he suffered in 2020, qualifying in second place. The Rio silver medalist Denis Ablyazin, also of the ROC, was ranked fifth in qualifying. Competition was extremely close, with 0.05 points separating the first three and less than one point between the first and seventh placed gymnasts.

The first to perform was Adem Asil of Turkey, and he did his medal chances a great deal of good with a first vault that scored 15.266 points, the only 15-point vault of the final. His second vault, however, was a disappointing 13.633 and he ended up in sixth place. Davtyan, starting fourth, put himself in the lead with a total score of 14.733. Korea’s Sin Jae-Hwan then overtook him with a second vault of 14.833, which gave him a total of 14.783. Ablyazin was the seventh man up and his second vault of 14.800 put him level with Sin. The last man to go was Carlos Edriel Yulo, who was hoping to become the Philippines first Olympic gymnastics medalist and needed to score 15 with his second vault. He only managed 14.866, however, for fourth place. Sin won the tie break by virtue of his best vault being 14.833 to Ablyazin’s 14.800. Sin won Korea’s first gymnastics gold of the Tokyo Games and only their second gymnastics gold since Yang Hak-Seon won the vault at London 2012.