The automatic qualifying height of 1.96 produced exactly the desired eight finalists from the sixteen competitors.
Finishing the morning's action with clean records up through 1.96 were the two Russian jumpers--world leader Anna Chicherova and this year's national indoor champion Yelena Slesarenko--as well as the two Ukrainians--two-time world championship finalist Vita Palamar and current national champion Viktoriya Styopina.
The eastern European theme continued as Edmonton bronze medallist Venelina Veneva of Bulgaria, plus European under-23 champion Blanca Vlasic of Croatia advanced to Sunday's final.
The final two places were taken by this year's European Cup winner, Daniela Rath of Germany, and Spain's Marta Mendia, the latter with a personal best.
Mendia's teammate, Ruth Beitia, was the main casualty of the elimination round, the only two-metre jumper in the field not to move onward to the medal round.
