Final | | time | | 1. Kim Bauermeister | Germany | 7:52.34 | | 2. Ovidiu Olteanu | Romania | 7:52.37 | | 3. Rod Finch | Great Britain | 7:53.99 | | 4. Anacleto Jiménez | Spain | 7:55.78 | | 5. Michael Buchleitner | Austria | 7:56.47 | | 6. Andrés Miguel Martínez | Spain | 7:59.70 | | 7. Andrey Tikhonov | Russia | 8:02.95 | | 8. Gino Van Geyte | Belgium | 8:11.02 | | 9. Mirko Döring | Germany | 8:50.58 | | -. Enrique Molina | Spain | DNF | | -. Mário Silva | Portugal | DNF | | -. Mogens Guldberg | Denmark | DQ | |
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| First 3 from each Heat and next Best 6 advanced to Final. |
Heat 1 | | time | | 9. Ovidiu Olteanu | Romania | 7:59.83 | Q | 10.Mirko Döring | Germany | 8:00.19 | Q | 11.Andrey Tikhonov | Russia | 8:00.30 | Q | 12.Anacleto Jiménez | Spain | 8:00.47 | q | 13.Christophe Impens | Belgium | 8:00.59 | | 14.Cândido Maia | Portugal | 8:00.82 | | 15.Marcel Laros | Netherlands | 8:01.04 | | 17.Claes Nyberg | Sweden | 8:03.08 | | 18.Matt Barnes | Great Britain | 8:10.88 | | 20.Ljubiša Đokić | Yugoslavia | 8:13.81 | | 21.Pascal Thiébaut | France | 8:18.55 | |
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Heat 2 | | time | | 1. Rod Finch | Great Britain | 7:57.35 | Q | 2. Mário Silva | Portugal | 7:57.45 | Q | 3. Kim Bauermeister | Germany | 7:57.76 | Q | 4. Michael Buchleitner | Austria | 7:57.77 | q | 5. Andrés Miguel Martínez | Spain | 7:57.98 | q | 6. Enrique Molina | Spain | 7:58.16 | q | 7. Mogens Guldberg | Denmark | 7:58.53 | q | 8. Gino Van Geyte | Belgium | 7:58.54 | q | 16.Nadir Bosch | France | 8:01.57 | | 19.ũric Dubus | France | 8:12.15 | | 22.Bekim Bahtiri | Slovenia | 8:21.60 | |
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