| 1 | Marcus O'Sullivan | IRL | 3:47,34 | Q |
| 2 | Jeff Atkinson | USA | 3:47,62 | Q |
| 3 | Rui Silva | POR | 3:47,92 | |
| 4 | Abdelaziz Sahere | MAR | 3:48,14 | |
| 5 | Vladimir Kolpakov | URS | 3:48,33 | |
| 6 | Mbiganyi Thee | BOT | 3:48,85 | |
| 7 | Doug Consiglio | CAN | 3:50,50 | |
| 8 | Nikolaos Tsiakoulas | GRE | 3:52,05 |
| 1 | Sergey Afanasyev | URS | 3:42,83 | Q |
| 2 | Manuel Pancorbo | ESP | 3:42,84 | Q |
| 3 | Radin Kuncicky | TCH | 3:43,19 | q |
| 4 | Agberto Conceiço Guimares | BRA | 3:44,86 | |
| 5 | Laszlo Toth | HUN | 3:44,99 | |
| 6 | Hamid Sadjadi | IRI | 3:48,32 |
| 1 | Hauke Fuhlbrügge | GDR | 3:42,26 | Q |
| 2 | Eckhardt Rüther | FRG | 3:42,65 | Q |
| 3 | Herve Phelippeau | FRA | 3:42,79 | q |
| 4 | Sydney Maree | USA | 3:42,84 | q |
| 5 | Feranswa Woldemarian | ETH | 3:43,35 | q |
| 6 | Adelino Hidalgo | ESP | 3:43,95 | |
| 7 | Robert Banai | HUN | 3:43,99 | |
| 8 | Dave Reid | CAN | 3:45,87 |