Heat 1 | time | | 1. Ulrike Bruns | East Germany | 4:11.50 | Q | 2. Gabriella Dorio | Italy | 4:11.5 | Q | 3. Vesela Yatsinska | Bulgaria | 4:11.7 | Q | 4. Giana Romanova | Soviet Union | 4:11.8 | Q | 5. Cornelia Bürki | Switzerland | 4:11.8 | Q | 6. Brigitte Kraus | West Germany | 4:11.9 | | 7. Mary Stewart | Great Britain | 4:17.5 | | 8. Tineke Kluft | Netherlands | 4:17.7 | | 9. Irén Lipcsei | Hungary | 4:20.2 | | 10.Fernande Schmitt | Luxembourg | 4:31.3 | |
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Heat 2 | time | | 1. Natalia Mărăşescu | Romania | 4:05.76 | Q | 2. Maricica Puică | Romania | 4:06.1 | Q | 3. Valentina Ilyinykh | Soviet Union | 4:06.3 | Q | 4. Grete Waitz | Norway | 4:06.3 | Q | 5. Lyudmila Kalnitskaya | Soviet Union | 4:06.7 | Q | 6. Totka Petrova | Bulgaria | 4:07.2 | q | 7. Christine Benning | Great Britain | 4:11.8 | q | 8. Magdolna Lázár | Hungary | 4:14.4 | | 9. Drahomíra Zvoníčková | Czechoslovakia | 4:19.2 | | 10.Renties Véronique | France | 4:40.3 | |
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