Qualifying went according to form in a subdued morning's competition, in which only two of the 25 entrants achieved the automatic qualifying standard of 12.70 metres.
Eight of the top 10 girls in the 2003 world rankings will take part in Friday afternoon's final.
But for Cristine Spataru, of Romania, matters were more of a struggle than they might have been, and after a sub12-metre first effort and foul in the second round, she showed her competitive class by leaping 12.89m to go into the final not only as the athlete with the best mark so far this year, but also with the best qualifying mark.
Next best was Vanessa Alesiani, of Italy, who went through in text book fashion, her 12.85m effort - within 2cm of her lifetime best - coming with her first and only jump.
Moldova's Aleksandra Zelenina, the only other girl among the entrants to have managed better than 13 metres in her career so far, lead the B Pool of jumpers with 12.58, which she managed with her first jump, although she struggled to improve on that in the two further rounds.
