Two lengthy qualifying groups managed to reduce the field of twenty-four competitors to eight over a stretch of four and a half hours.
Only Igor Pavlov of Russia managed 5.75, the predetermined automatic qualifying height. The remaining seven all used 5.70 as their ticket to Sunday's final.
Two of the Birmingham medalists - champion Tim Lobinger of Germany and bronze medallist Rens Blom of the Netherlands - will again battle for medals, as will a pair of Paris prizewinners from last year: titlist Giuseppe Gibilisco of Italy and bronze winner Patrik Kristiansson of Sweden.
The 2003 outdoor leader, France's Romain Mesnil, remained alive in the title chase, along with Adam Ptacek of the Czech Republic and the diminutive (1.73m tall) Denys Yurchenko of Ukraine.
Behind in the countback at 5.70, Paris silver medallist Okkert Brits of South Africa was forced to jump alone at 5.75, at which he failed and did not advance.
Indoor world leader Jeff Hartwig of the US (season best of 5.88) also had his problems, needing three attempts at his 5.55, then passing 5.65 before exiting at 5.70. His teammate, US indoor champion Toby Stevenson cleared 5.55 before ill-advisedly changing poles, leading to failures at 5.65.
Other notables coming up short were Edmonton champion Dmitri Markov of Australia--whose non-qualifying 5.65 was still an Oceania record--and current European champion Alexander Averbukh of Israel (5.55).
