| Heat 1 | | time | | | 1. Henryk Szordykowski |  Poland | 3:43.83 | Q | | 2. Herman Mignon |  Belgium | 3:43.99 | Q | | 3. Klaus-Peter Justus |  East Germany | 3:44.12 | Q | | 4. Haico Scharn |  Netherlands | 3:44.45 | q | | 5. Mikhail Ulimov |  Soviet Union | 3:44.48 | q | | 6. Ivan Kováč |  Czechoslovakia | 3:44.58 | | | 11.Roelof Veld | Netherlands | 3:45.85 | | | 13.Jean-Louis Benoît |  France | 3:48.98 | |
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| Heat 2 | | time | | | 7. Jürgen Hemmerling | East Germany | 3:44.86 | Q | | 8. Włodzimierz Staszak | Poland | 3:45.56 | Q | | 9. Bram Wassenaar | Netherlands | 3:45.72 | Q | | 10.Edgard Salvé | Belgium | 3:45.81 | | | 12.Vladimir Yarovenko | Soviet Union | 3:48.37 | | | 14.Christian Collisy |  West Germany | 3:49.42 | | | 15.Juan Borraz |  Spain | 3:54.82 | | | 16.Gerd Larsen |  Denmark | 4:00.97 | |
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