Derek Drouin soars to high jump final

Canada's Derek Drouin took his first step towards claiming another world championship medal on Friday.

The 25-year-old from Corunna, Ont., easily qualified for Sunday's high jump final, clearing the qualifying mark of 2.31 metres on his first attempt.

• Canada's Warner trails Eaton after Day 1 of decathlon
• RESULTS: World track and field championships
• BROADCAST SCHEDULE: Track & field worlds on CBC, CBCSports.ca

"I'm feeling confident," Drouin said. "I'm definitely happy with how today went, it gives me more confidence going into Sunday."

Drouin and Zhang Guowei of China were the only jumpers on the day to go clean, clearing the bar on the first attempt at all five heights.

Canada has four medals at the world championships, and Drouin — bronze medallist at both the 2012 London Olympics, and 2013 world championships — is one of the country's best hopes to add to the pot.

Drouin believes it could take a jump of 2.40 — his Canadian record — to win gold.

"I wouldn't put anything past any of the guys in that field. You never know when 2.40 isn't going to be enough to get onto the podium hopefully that isn't the case," he said.

Drouin set his Canadian record in April of last year, and the plan going into this season was to be at his best later in the season.

"That was definitely the focus after last year. It wasn't necessarily a problem last year because there wasn't a huge championship," said Drouin, who won last summer's Commonwealth Games with a jump of 2.31. "This year I definitely wanted to change that because I did struggle to maintain a little bit last year.

"It was pretty frustrating for me early on [this season], I was jumping heights much lower than I'm used to jumping. But things have really turned around during the big competition season and obviously I'm satisfied with it now, as tough as it was a few months ago."

Mike Mason of Nanoose Bay, B.C., missed on all three of his attempts at 2.29 and was eliminated.

Warner trails Eaton in decathlon

The opening day of the decathlon played out as expected, with American Ashton Eaton and Canada's Damian Warner at the top of the standings. 

Eaton, the reigning world and Olympic champion, leads through five of 10 events with 4,703 points. Warner, the 2013 world bronze medallist and this year's Pan Am Games champion from London, Ont., was second with 4,530.

The Canadian record holder posted personal bests in both the long jump (7.65 metres) and shot put (14.44m) and a season's best in the high jump (2.04). He ran 10.31 seconds in the 100m to finish second behind Eaton (10.23), and had the fourth-best time in the 400m (47.30).

Eaton won the 400 leg by a wide margin with a stunning time of 45 seconds flat — a world record for a decathlete.

Eaton is the husband of Canadian heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton, who won silver in her event.

Two-time world champion Trey Hardee withdrew from the competition because of a lower back injury suffered in the long jump Friday morning.

The American, who won the event in 2009 and '11, clutched at his left side when he stepped out of the pit after a foul on his third attempt. He struggled in the shot put before pulling out of the competition before the high jump.​

The event finishes for the day with the 400m at 8:20 a.m. ET.

Nettey misses long jump medal

Canada's Christabel Nettey finished one spot away from the podium in the women's long jump. The Pan Am champion placed fourth with a best leap of 6.95 metres.

American Tianna Bartoletta won her second world title, 10 years after her first, by jumping 7.14 metres with her last attempt.

Shara Proctor of Britain took silver with a best mark of 7.07 metres, and Ivana Spanovic of Serbia was third at 7.01.