| POS | Rank | Heat | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | RESULTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 3 | Moses Kiptanui |
KEN |
8:19.08 Q |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | Mark Croghan |
USA |
8:19.14 Q |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | Angelo Carosi |
ITA |
8:19.66 Q |
| 4 | 4 | 3 | Martin Strege |
GER |
8:21.24 Q |
| 5 | 1 | 2 | Matthew Kiprotich Birir |
KEN |
8:23.11 Q |
| 6 | 5 | 3 | Tom Hanlon |
GBR |
8:23.16 q |
| 7 | 2 | 2 | Steffen Brand |
GER |
8:23.27 Q |
| 8 | 3 | 2 | Elarbi Khattabi |
MAR |
8:23.57 Q |
| 9 | 6 | 3 | Ricardo Vera |
URU |
8:23.65 q |
| 10 | 1 | 1 | Patrick Sang |
KEN |
8:24.49 Q |
| 11 | 2 | 1 | Azzedine Brahmi |
ALG |
8:24.73 Q |
| 12 | 3 | 1 | Abdelaziz Sahere |
MAR |
8:24.89 Q |
| 13 | 4 | 1 | Michael Buchleitner |
AUT |
8:24.92 Q |
| 14 | 5 | 1 | Shaun Creighton |
AUS |
8:25.29 q |
| 15 | 4 | 2 | Alessandro Lambruschini |
ITA |
8:25.46 Q |
| 16 | 5 | 2 | Marc Davis |
USA |
8:26.49 q |
| 17 | 6 | 1 | Tom Buckner |
GBR |
8:27.26 |
| 18 | 7 | 3 | João Junqueira |
POR |
8:28.39 |
| 19 | 8 | 3 | Jim Svenøy |
NOR |
8:29.34 |
| 20 | 7 | 1 | Vladimir Pronin |
RUS |
8:32.26 |
| 21 | 9 | 3 | Ville Hautala |
FIN |
8:32.49 |
| 22 | 10 | 3 | Saad Shaddad Al-Asmari |
KSA |
8:35.06 |
| 23 | 6 | 2 | Colin Walker |
GBR |
8:36.22 |
| 24 | 11 | 3 | Whaddon Niewoudt |
RSA |
8:36.40 |
| 25 | 7 | 2 | Bezunen Yae Tura |
ETH |
8:37.13 |
| 26 | 8 | 1 | Kim Bauermeister |
GER |
8:37.41 |
| 27 | 8 | 2 | Thierry Brusseau |
FRA |
8:39.82 |
| 28 | 9 | 1 | Wander do Prado Moura |
BRA |
8:46.03 |
| 29 | 9 | 2 | Akira Nakamura |
JPN |
8:48.89 |
| 30 | 10 | 2 | Eduardo Henriques |
POR |
8:57.21 |
| 31 | 10 | 1 | Brian Diemer |
USA |
9:01.88 |
| 32 | 11 | 1 | Davendra Prakash Singh |
FIJ |
9:21.15 |
| 2 | Gustavo Castillo |
MEX |
DNF | ||
| 1 | Antonio Peula |
ESP |
DNS |