| 1 | Kevin Little | USA | 20,83 | Q |
| 2 | Darryl Wohlsen | AUS | 21,06 | Q |
| 3 | Erik Wijmeersch | BEL | 21,74 | |
| Prodromos Katsantonis | CYP | DNS |
| 1 | Obadele Thompson | BAR | 20,84 | Q | |
| 2 | Patrick van Balkom | NED | 20,94 | Q | NR |
| 3 | John Regis | GBR | 21,23 | ||
| 4 | Boštjan Horvat | SLO | 21,35 |
| 1 | Francis Obikwelu | NGR | 20,87 | Q | |
| 2 | Juan Pedro Toledo | MEX | 21,02 | Q | NR |
| 3 | Ryszard Pilarczyk | POL | 21,10 | q | |
| 4 | Hamoud Abdallah Al-Dalhami | OMN | 21,99 |
| 1 | Frank Fredericks | NAM | 20,84 | Q | |
| 2 | Carlos Gats | ARG | 21,08 | Q | NR |
| 3 | Petko Yankov | BUL | 21,10 | ||
| 4 | Chen Tien-Wen | TPE | 21,82 | ||
| 5 | Menzi Dlamini | SWZ | 22,57 |
| 1 | Alexios Alexopoulos | GRE | 20,87 | Q | |
| 2 | Chris Donaldson | NZL | 21,01 | Q | NR |
| 3 | Anninos Markoullides | CYP | 21,02 | q | |
| 4 | Marc Foucan | FRA | 21,28 | ||
| 5 | Kazuhiro Takahashi | JPN | 21,35 |
| 1 | Rohsaan Griffin | RSA | 20,83 | Q |
| 2 | Marcus Adam | GBR | 20,98 | Q |
| 3 | Marcin Urbaś | POL | 21,01 | q |
| 4 | O'Brian Gibbons | CAN | 21,31 | |
| 5 | Silas Helo | SOL | 23,13 |
| 1 | Koji Ito | JPN | 20,76 | Q | AR |
| 2 | Iván García | CUB | 20,89 | Q | |
| 3 | Christophe Cheval | FRA | 21,02 | q | |
| 4 | Malik Khaled Louahla | ALG | 21,24 | NR | |
| 5 | Kwame Galloway | MNT | 24,32 |