British pole vaulter Steve Lewis flopped in qualifying on Thursday at the World Championships - failing to clear his opening height.

The Newham and Essex athlete set a personal best of 5.61m earlier this season to book his place in Osaka, but the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist failed three times at 5.40 to crash out early on.

American Brad Walker, who has cleared a world-leading 5.95m this year, is well fancied for gold in the event, and he progressed to the final by clearing 5.70.

There was a surprise when Australian Paul Burgess failed to qualify - his best effort of 5.40 was well below the 5.91 he cleared earlier this year - but team-mate Steven Hooker avoided any such problems.

European champion Aleksandr Averbukh also went through to Saturday's final, clearing 5.65 in his pool.