| POS | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | MARK | 
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sally Barsosio |  KEN | 32:27.99 Q | 
| 2 | Lynn Jennings |  USA | 32:28.30 Q | 
| 3 | Junxia Wang |  CHN | 32:28.35 Q | 
| 4 | Albertina Dias |  POR | 32:28.39 Q | 
| 5 | Conceição Ferreira |  POR | 32:28.42 Q | 
| 6 | Naomi Yoshida |  JPN | 32:28.66 Q | 
| 7 | Carmen de Oliveira |  BRA | 32:29.48 Q | 
| 8 | Uta Pippig |  GER | 32:31.90 Q | 
| 9 | Iulia Olteanu |  ROU | 32:32.51 Q | 
| 10 | Olga Appell |  MEX | 32:34.43 Q | 
| 11 | Rosario Murcia |  FRA | 32:56.24 q | 
| 12 | Elaine Van Blunk |  USA | 33:06.44 q | 
| 13 | Julia Sakara |  ZIM | 33:20.16 | 
| 14 | Junko Kataoka |  JPN | 33:21.31 | 
| 15 | Viktoriya Nenasheva |  RUS | 33:23.19 | 
| 16 | Lisa Harvey |  CAN | 33:24.66 | 
| 17 | Vikki McPherson |  GBR | 33:49.51 | 
| 18 | Jayanthi Palaniappan |  MAS | 33:56.72 | 
| 19 | Barbara Moore |  NZL | 34:38.27 | 
| 20 | Aura Morales |  GUA | 36:06.02 | 
| Martha Ernstsdóttir |  ISL | DNS | 
| POS | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | MARK | 
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anne Marie Letko-Lauck |  USA | 32:26.22 Q | 
| 2 | Huandi Zhong |  CHN | 32:26.40 Q | 
| 3 | Maria Guida |  ITA | 32:26.60 Q | 
| 4 | Tegla Loroupe |  KEN | 32:26.67 Q | 
| 5 | Izumi Maki |  JPN | 32:26.89 Q | 
| 6 | Elana Meyer |  RSA | 32:28.02 Q | 
| 7 | Fernanda Ribeiro |  POR | 32:29.21 Q | 
| 8 | Päivi Tikkanen |  FIN | 32:51.72 Q | 
| 9 | Kathrin Wessel |  GER | 32:52.06 Q | 
| 10 | Suzana Ciric |  SCG | 32:58.38 Q | 
| 11 | Catherina McKiernan |  IRL | 33:00.38 q | 
| 12 | Gitte Karlshøj |  DEN | 33:05.13 q | 
| 13 | MarÃa Isabel Juárez |  MEX | 33:17.94 q | 
| 14 | Berhane Adere |  ETH | 33:20.62 | 
| 15 | Martha Tenorio |  ECU | 33:50.68 | 
| 16 | Lesley Morton |  NZL | 33:54.39 | 
| 17 | Marilu Salazar |  PER | 34:58.62 | 
| 18 | Gulsara Dadabaeva |  TJK | 39:30.28 | 
| 19 | Tevdenshigmed Enh-Od |  MGL | 40:32.86 | 
| Ningning Ma |  CHN | DNS | |
| Tamara Koba |  UKR | DNS |