| 1 | Emile Puttemans | BEL | 7:54,23 | Q |
| 2 | Ray Smedley | GBR | 7:55,20 | Q |
| 3 | Josef Jansky | TCH | 7:55,49 | Q |
| 4 | Jan Kondzior | POL | 7:56,20 | Q |
| 5 | Dan Glans | SWE | 7:57,95 | |
| 6 | Bram Wassenaar | NED | 7:59,77 | |
| 7 | Heinrich Händlhuber | AUT | 8:08,54 |
| 1 | Arne Kvalheim | NOR | 7:58,44 | Q |
| 2 | Pavel Penkava | TCH | 7:58,95 | Q |
| 3 | Paul Thijs | BEL | 7:59,09 | Q |
| 4 | Antonio Burgos | ESP | 8:00,90 | Q |
| 5 | Aldo Tomasini | ITA | 8:05,19 | |
| 6 | Ágúst Ásgeirsson | ISL | 8:44,28 |