In the qualifying rounds, Évora and Idowu were the first to pass the automatic qualifying mark of 17.15 metres, recording bests of 17.44 and 17.32 m respectively. Chinese jumper Li Yanxi was the third through the qualifying mark, and Sands and Giralt soon followed. The qualifying was not of the same standard as the 2008 Olympic final, as Copello and Dmitrij Valukevic rounded out the top twelve competitors with jumps under 17 m.