| 1 | Richard Wilde | GBR | 8:01,4 | Q |
| 2 | Harald Norpoth | FRG | 8:02,0 | Q |
| 3 | Emile Puttemans | BEL | 8:02,3 | Q |
| 4 | Jørn Lauenborg | DEN | 8:03,1 | Q |
| 5 | Pavel Penkava | TCH | 8:04,6 | |
| 6 | Seppo Tuominen | FIN | 8:09,6 |
| 1 | Nikolay Sviridov | URS | 8:11,8 | Q |
| 2 | Werner Girke | FRG | 8:13,0 | Q |
| 3 | Kazimierz Maranda | POL | 8:13,6 | Q |
| 4 | Javier Alvarez | ESP | 8:13,8 | Q |
| 5 | Umberto Risi | ITA | 8:17,0 | |
| 6 | Terje Schrøder-Nielsen | NOR | 8:18,0 | |
| 7 | Richard Fink | AUT | 8:26,6 |