| 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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