| POS | Rank | Heat | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | RESULTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2 | Danny Harris |
USA |
48.74 |
| 2 | 1 | 1 | Edwin Moses |
USA |
49.03 |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | Toma Tomov |
BUL |
49.27 |
| 4 | 1 | 3 | Harald Schmid |
FRG |
49.28 |
| 5 | 2 | 5 | Winthrop Graham |
JAM |
49.34 |
| 6 | 2 | 3 | Kriss Akabusi |
GBR |
49.36 |
| 7 | 3 | 5 | José Alonso |
ESP |
49.42 |
| 8 | 2 | 1 | Henry Amike |
NGR |
49.56 |
| 9 | 2 | 2 | Max Robertson |
GBR |
49.73 |
| 10 | 3 | 2 | Shem Ochako |
KEN |
49.86 |
| 11 | 3 | 1 | Ryoichi Yoshida |
JPN |
49.87 |
| 12 | 1 | 4 | Sven Nylander |
SWE |
49.95 |
| 13 | 3 | 3 | Aleksandr Vasilyev |
URS |
49.99 |
| 14 | 2 | 4 | Amadou Dia Ba |
SEN |
50.02 |
| 15 | 4 | 3 | Joseph Maritim |
KEN |
50.04 |
| 16 | 1 | 6 | Thomas Nyberg |
SWE |
50.06 |
| 17 | 2 | 6 | David Patrick |
USA |
50.10 |
| 18 | 4 | 5 | Randy Cox |
TTO |
50.14 |
| 19 | 3 | 6 | John Graham |
CAN |
50.23 |
| 20 | 4 | 1 | Simon Kitur |
KEN |
50.30 |
| 21 | 4 | 2 | Gilles Vimbert |
FRA |
50.34 |
| 22 | 5 | 5 | Philippe Gonigam |
FRA |
50.38 |
| 23 | 5 | 2 | Thomas Futterknecht |
AUT |
50.44 |
| 24 | 6 | 5 | Daniel Ogidi |
NGR |
50.51 |
| 25 | 3 | 4 | Uwe Schmitt |
FRG |
50.54 |
| 26 | 4 | 4 | Rik Tommelein |
BEL |
50.63 |
| 27 | 4 | 6 | Greg Rolle |
BAH |
50.63 |
| 28 | 5 | 1 | Martin Gillingham |
GBR |
50.64 |
| 29 | 5 | 6 | Stanislav Navesnak |
TCH |
50.65 |
| 30 | 6 | 1 | Michel Zimmerman |
BEL |
50.70 |
| 31 | 7 | 1 | Pedro Chiamulera |
BRA |
50.71 |
| 32 | 6 | 2 | Pablo Squella |
CHI |
50.73 |
| 33 | 7 | 5 | Klaus Ehrle |
AUT |
50.91 |
| 34 | 5 | 4 | Jasem Goma'an Al-Duaillah |
KUW |
50.97 |
| 35 | 6 | 4 | Krasimir Demirev |
BUL |
51.07 |
| 36 | 7 | 4 | Jozef Kucej |
TCH |
51.13 |
| 37 | 5 | 3 | Angelo Locci |
ITA |
51.15 |
| 38 | 7 | 2 | Edgar Itt |
FRG |
51.18 |
| 39 | 6 | 3 | Shigenobu Ohmori |
JPN |
51.20 |
| 40 | 8 | 5 | Ahmed Abdelhalim Ghanem |
EGY |
51.35 |
| 41 | 7 | 3 | Rok Kopitar |
YUG |
51.53 |
| 42 | 6 | 6 | Athanasios Kaloyiannis |
GRE |
51.94 |
| 43 | 7 | 6 | Ken Gordon |
AUS |
52.22 |
| 44 | 8 | 3 | Ilan Goldwasser |
ISR |
52.54 |
| 45 | 8 | 4 | Wilfredo Ferrer |
VEN |
53.03 |
| 1 | Raimundo Victor Lima |
STP |
DNS | ||
| 2 | Prince Dowai |
SLE |
DNS |