| 1 | Nandor Hornyacsek | HUN | 48,64 | Q |
| 2 | Vassiliy Archipenko | URS | 48,79 | Q |
| 3 | Giovanni Bogiorni | ITA | 48,79 |
| 1 | Nikolay Chernyezkiy | URS | 47,20 | Q |
| 2 | Ryszard Podlas | POL | 47,80 | Q |
| 3 | Eddy de Leeuw | BEL | 48,34 | |
| 4 | Yanko Bratanov | BUL | 48,64 |
| 1 | Alfonso di Guida | ITA | 47,96 | Q |
| 2 | Karel Kolar | TCH | 47,96 | Q |
| 3 | Narzis Popov | BUL | 48,19 |
| 1 | Pietro Mennea | ITA | 48,40 | Q |
| 2 | Zeljko Knapic | YUG | 48,55 | Q |
| 3 | Pavel Pavlov | BUL | 48,83 |