| POS | Rank | Heat | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | RESULTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | Francesco Panetta |
ITA |
8:16.08 |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | Raymond Pannier |
FRA |
8:16.93 |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | Patriz Ilg |
FRG |
8:18.73 |
| 4 | 2 | 3 | Graeme Fell |
CAN |
8:18.87 |
| 5 | 3 | 1 | William Van Dijck |
BEL |
8:19.19 |
| 6 | 3 | 3 | Peter Koech |
KEN |
8:19.28 |
| 7 | 4 | 3 | José Regalo |
POR |
8:20.70 |
| 8 | 1 | 2 | Joshua Kipkemboi |
KEN |
8:20.75 |
| 9 | 5 | 3 | Henry Marsh |
USA |
8:20.98 |
| 10 | 2 | 2 | Hagen Melzer |
GDR |
8:21.07 |
| 11 | 3 | 2 | Alessandro Lambruschini |
ITA |
8:21.21 |
| 12 | 4 | 2 | Brian Diemer |
USA |
8:21.32 |
| 13 | 6 | 3 | Roger Hackney |
GBR |
8:21.35 |
| 14 | 7 | 3 | Franco Boffi |
ITA |
8:21.69 |
| 15 | 4 | 1 | Patrick Sang |
KEN |
8:22.26 |
| 16 | 5 | 2 | Fethi Baccouche |
TUN |
8:22.75 |
| 17 | 8 | 3 | Bruno Le Stum |
FRA |
8:23.61 |
| 18 | 5 | 1 | Eddie Wedderburn |
GBR |
8:24.09 |
| 19 | 6 | 2 | Boguslaw Maminski |
POL |
8:24.32 |
| 20 | 7 | 2 | Tommy Ekblom |
FIN |
8:24.66 |
| 21 | 6 | 1 | Adauto Domingues |
BRA |
8:26.67 |
| 22 | 7 | 1 | Bela Vago |
HUN |
8:27.24 |
| 23 | 9 | 3 | Valeriy Vandyak |
URS |
8:30.43 |
| 24 | 8 | 1 | Francisco Sánchez |
ESP |
8:34.29 |
| 25 | 8 | 2 | Ricardo Vera |
URU |
8:36.80 |
| 26 | 9 | 1 | Michael Heist |
FRG |
8:38.80 |
| 27 | 10 | 1 | Brian Abshire |
USA |
8:39.97 |
| 28 | 9 | 2 | Colin Reitz |
GBR |
8:40.55 |
| 29 | 11 | 1 | Liam O'Brien |
IRL |
8:40.88 |
| 30 | 10 | 2 | Shigeyuki Aikyo |
JPN |
8:41.41 |
| 31 | 10 | 3 | Hans Koeleman |
NED |
8:41.80 |
| 32 | 11 | 3 | Domingo Ramón |
ESP |
8:42.35 |
| 33 | 12 | 1 | Herman Hofstee |
NED |
8:44.04 |
| 34 | 13 | 1 | Emilio Ulloa |
CHI |
8:44.51 |
| 35 | 11 | 2 | Espen Borge |
NOR |
8:47.34 |
| 36 | 12 | 2 | Ramón López |
PAR |
9:10.29 |
| 2 | Flemming Jensen |
DEN |
DNF | ||
| 3 | Miroslaw Zerkowski |
POL |
DNF |