| Final | | time | | | 1. Niels Holst-Sørensen |  Denmark | 47.9s | | | 2. Jacques Lunis |  France | 48.3s | | | 3. Derek Pugh |  Great Britain | 48.9s | | | 4. Sven-Erik Nolinge |  Sweden | 48.9s | | | 5. William Roberts | Great Britain | 49.5s | | | -. Herman Kunnen |  Belgium | DNS | |
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| History Men 400m. Venue: Bislett Stadion. | | World Record: Klemmer 46.0s | | European Record: Harbig, Germany 46.0s | | Season Best: Wint 48.0s |
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Heats - Friday 23th August | | First 2 from each Heat advanced to Final. |
| Heat 1 | time | | | 1. Jacques Lunis | France | 48.6 | Q | | 2. Derek Pugh | Great Britain | 48.9 | Q | | 3. Oskar Hardmeier |  Switzerland | 49.5 | | | 4. Anton Blok |  Netherlands | 49.6 | | | 5. Gunnar Bergsten | Denmark | 50.3 | | | 6. Kjartan Jóhannsson |  Iceland | 50.7 | NR |
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| Heat 2 | time | | | 1. Niels Holst-Sørensen | Denmark | 48.2 | Q | | 2. William Roberts | Great Britain | 48.5 | Q | | 3. Stig Lindgård | Sweden | 48.7 | | | 4. Sergey Komarov |  Soviet Union | 48.8 | | | 5. Adam Piaskowy |  Poland | 52.6 | |
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| Heat 3 | time | | 1. Herman Kunnen | Belgium | 48.9 | Q | | 2. Sven-Erik Nolinge | Sweden | 49.0 | Q | | 3. Luigi Paterlini |  Italy | 49.1 | | | 4. Leopold Láznička |  Czechia | 50.4 | |
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