| POS | Rank | Heat | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | RESULTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 4 | Edwin Moses |
USA |
49.54 |
| 2 | 1 | 5 | Harald Schmid |
FRG |
49.99 |
| 3 | 2 | 5 | Ryszard Szparak |
POL |
50.09 |
| 4 | 3 | 5 | Franz Meier |
SUI |
50.09 |
| 5 | 1 | 2 | Aleksandr Kharlov |
URS |
50.12 |
| 6 | 1 | 3 | David Lee |
USA |
50.15 |
| 7 | 2 | 2 | Sven Nylander |
SWE |
50.23 |
| 8 | 2 | 3 | Toma Tomov |
BUL |
50.39 |
| 9 | 1 | 1 | Andre Phillips |
USA |
50.44 |
| 10 | 2 | 4 | Daniel Ogidi |
NGR |
50.44 |
| 11 | 3 | 2 | José Alonso |
ESP |
50.53 |
| 12 | 4 | 5 | Ahmed Hamada |
BRN |
50.53 |
| 13 | 3 | 4 | Amadou Dia Ba |
SEN |
50.59 |
| 14 | 4 | 4 | Krasimir Demirev |
BUL |
50.62 |
| 15 | 3 | 3 | Karl Smith |
JAM |
50.64 |
| 16 | 4 | 3 | Thomas Futterknecht |
AUT |
50.68 |
| 17 | 5 | 3 | Antonio Euzebio |
BRA |
50.76 |
| 18 | 4 | 2 | Vladislav Pecen |
TCH |
50.86 |
| 19 | 5 | 4 | Greg Rolle |
BAH |
50.92 |
| 20 | 5 | 2 | István Takács |
HUN |
50.97 |
| 21 | 6 | 2 | Peter Rwamuhanda |
UGA |
50.99 |
| 22 | 2 | 1 | Rik Tommelein |
BEL |
50.99 |
| 23 | 3 | 1 | Gary Oakes |
GBR |
51.23 |
| 24 | 4 | 1 | Ian Newhouse |
CAN |
51.45 |
| 25 | 5 | 5 | Petter Hesselberg |
NOR |
51.67 |
| 26 | 6 | 3 | Stephen Sole |
GBR |
51.80 |
| 27 | 6 | 5 | Georgios Vamvakas |
GRE |
51.92 |
| 28 | 7 | 5 | David Charlton |
BAH |
52.02 |
| 29 | 7 | 3 | Ahmed Abdelhalim Ghanem |
EGY |
52.32 |
| 30 | 6 | 4 | Rok Kopitar |
YUG |
52.34 |
| 31 | 5 | 1 | Meshak Munyoro |
KEN |
53.25 |
| 32 | 6 | 1 | Paiwa Bogela |
PNG |
54.68 |
| 7 | 4 | Carlos Azulay |
ESP |
DQ* | |
| 1 | Aleksandr Yatsevich |
URS |
DNF |