| 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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