Only two athletes achieved automatic qualifying marks, both of those by Marquise Goodwin and Mauro Vinicius da Silva just one centimeter over the minimum at 8.11.

It took a better second jump at 7.92 to make the final, leaving Russian junior and co-world leader Sergey Morgunov on the outside.

Defending champion Irving Saladino was unable to get a legal jump in, failing to advance.

In the second round, Greg Rutherford took the lead with an 8.21, while Claye jumped a centimeter better than Tomlinson, to hold on to second.

The fourth round was when all but two of the finalists hit their best mark, Claye with 8.12 and Rutherford extending his lead to 8.31.

The two-time defending (and four-time overall) world champion, Dwight Phillips of the United States, had been injured in a car accident and did not compete.

In qualification, each athlete jumped three times (stopping early if they made the qualifying distance of 8.10 metres).

[7] Prior to the competition[update], the existing world and Olympic records, and season leading time, were as follows.