The two groups of high jump qualifiers were a study in contrasts. Although the day's single automatic qualifier came out of the first pool when Gennadiy Moroz of Belarus cleared 2.29 on his second attempt, overall the eight jumpers had a composite record of just 12 makes and 27 misses. Only Moroz and Tomás Jankú of the Czech Republic (2.25) moved on.
Group B, on the other hand, quickly ran through three heights, recording 17 makes and only 2 misses. All cleared 2.25 other than Dragutin Topic, who needed to clear 2.27 to make up for an earlier miss that would have kept him from advancing to the final.
Saturday's final, to be held at 17:00, will thus have 10 competitors. There were no casualties of note as all the leading actors did what was expected.
