| POS | Rank | Heat | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | RESULTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | Tom Hanlon |
GBR |
8:18.02 Q |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | Julius Kariuki |
KEN |
8:18.06 Q |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | Graeme Fell |
CAN |
8:18.19 Q |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | Abdelaziz Sahere |
MAR |
8:18.23 Q |
| 5 | 5 | 1 | Brian Diemer |
USA |
8:18.29 q |
| 6 | 1 | 2 | Patrick Sang |
KEN |
8:26.78 Q |
| 7 | 2 | 2 | Francesco Panetta |
ITA |
8:27.25 Q |
| 8 | 1 | 3 | Moses Kiptanui |
KEN |
8:27.52 Q |
| 9 | 3 | 2 | Gábor Markó |
HUN |
8:27.53 Q |
| 10 | 6 | 1 | Thierry Brusseau |
FRA |
8:27.77 q |
| 11 | 2 | 3 | Azzedine Brahmi |
ALG |
8:27.95 Q |
| 12 | 4 | 2 | Joseph Mahmoud |
FRA |
8:28.35 Q |
| 13 | 3 | 3 | Angelo Carosi |
ITA |
8:28.35 Q |
| 14 | 4 | 3 | William Van Dijck |
BEL |
8:28.44 Q |
| 15 | 5 | 3 | Hagen Melzer |
GER |
8:28.56 q |
| 16 | 5 | 2 | Mark Croghan |
USA |
8:29.20 |
| 17 | 6 | 2 | Ricardo Vera |
URU |
8:30.14 |
| 18 | 7 | 1 | Shaun Creighton |
AUS |
8:30.65 |
| 19 | 6 | 3 | Colin Walker |
GBR |
8:30.69 |
| 20 | 7 | 3 | Bruno Le Stum |
FRA |
8:33.38 |
| 21 | 8 | 1 | Akira Nakamura |
JPN |
8:33.89 |
| 22 | 7 | 2 | Benito Nogales |
ESP |
8:39.21 |
| 23 | 9 | 1 | Jose Carlos Pereira |
POR |
8:39.30 |
| 24 | 8 | 3 | Dan Nelson |
USA |
8:40.23 |
| 25 | 10 | 1 | Jirà Svec |
TCH |
8:41.08 |
| 26 | 9 | 3 | João Junqueira |
POR |
8:43.37 |
| 27 | 8 | 2 | Marcelo Cascabelo |
ARG |
8:44.57 |
| 28 | 10 | 3 | Antonio Peula |
ESP |
8:45.41 |
| 29 | 9 | 2 | Jörgen Salo |
FIN |
8:45.68 |
| 30 | 11 | 3 | Mohamed Barak Al Dosari |
KSA |
8:50.29 |
| 31 | 11 | 1 | Juan Azkueta |
ESP |
8:50.50 |
| 32 | 10 | 2 | Peter McColgan |
GBR |
8:58.34 |
| 33 | 11 | 2 | Deena Ram |
IND |
9:05.21 |
| 34 | 12 | 3 | Davendra Prakash Singh |
FIJ |
9:23.28 |
| 2 | Ivan Konovalov |
URS |
DNF | ||
| 1 | Alessandro Lambruschini |
ITA |
DNS | ||
| 3 | Adauto Domingues |
BRA |
DNS |