| Final | time | age | | 1. Kipchoge Keino |  KEN | 8:23.6 | 32 | | 2. Benjamin Jipcho | KEN | 8:24.6 | 29 | | 3. Tapio Kantanen |  FIN | 8:24.8 | 23 | | 4. Bronislaw Malinowski |  POL | 8:28.0 | 21 | | 5. Dusan Moravcik |  TCH | 8:29.2 | 24 | | 6. Amos Biwott | KEN | 8:33.6 | 24 | | 7. Romualdas Bite |  URS | 8:34.6 | 28 | | 8. Pekka Paivarinta | FIN | 8:37.2 | 23 | | 9. Takaharu Koyama |  JPN | 8:37.8 | 24 | | 10.Mikko Ala-Leppilampi | FIN | 8:41.0 | 29 | | 11.Jean-Paul Villain |  FRA | 8:46.8 | 25 | | 12.Mikhail Jelev |  BUL | 9:02.6 | 29 |
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| | | First 3 from each Heat advanced to Final. |
| Heat 1 | time | | 1. Tapio Kantanen | FIN | 8:24.8 | | 2. Kipchoge Keino | KEN | 8:27.6 | | 3. Takaharu Koyama | JPN | 8:29.8 | | 4. Gheorghe Cefan |  ROM | 8:33.8 | | 5. Andrew Holden |  GBR | 8:33.8 | | 6. Anton Feldmann |  SUI | 8:35.8 | | 7. Stephen Savage |  USA | 8:39.0 | | 8. Gerard Buchheit | FRA | 8:41.2 | | 9. Filbert Bayi |  TAN | 8:41.4 | | 10.Vitus Ashaba |  UGA | 8:45.0 | | 11.Tadeusz Zielinski | POL | 8:49.8 | | 12.Wigmar Pedersen |  DEN | 9:03.0 |
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| Heat 2 | time | | 1. Benjamin Jipcho | KEN | 8:31.6 | | 2. Mikko Ala-Leppilampi | FIN | 8:31.8 | | 3. Mikhail Jelev | BUL | 8:35.8 | | 4. Willi Maier |  FRG | 8:37.6 | | 5. Akira Takeuchi | JPN | 8:40.4 | | 6. Sergei Skripka | URS | 8:41.4 | | 7. Jan Voje |  NOR | 8:42.0 | | 8. Hans Menet | SUI | 8:45.4 | | 9. Edward Leddy |  IRL | 8:47.4 | | 10.Kazimierz Maranda | POL | 8:50.4 | | 11.Nij Esau Ade |  CMR | 9:34.4 | | 12.Kerry O'Brien |  AUS |
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| Heat 3 | time | | 1. Pekka Paivarinta | FIN | 8:29.0 | | 2. Romualdas Bitte | URS | 8:30.2 | | 3. Jean-Paul Villain | FRA | 8:30.4 | | 4. Jozef Horoic | TCH | 8:30.6 | | 5. Anders Gerderud |  SWE | 8:30.8 | | 6. Willi Wagner | FRG | 8:34.0 | | 7. Paul Thijs |  BEL | 8:35.0 | | 8. John Bicourt | GBR | 8:38.8 | | 9. Douglas Brown | USA | 8:41.2 | | 10. Panayotis Nakopoulos |  GRE | 8:48.4 | | 11. Yohanes Mohamed |  ETH | 8:52.6 | | 12. Robert Hackman |  GHA | 8:57.6 |
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| Heat 4 | time | | 1. Amos Biwott | KEN | 8:23.8 | | 2. Bronislaw Malinowski | POL | 8:28.2 | | 3. Dusan Moravcik | TCH | 8:33.4 | | 4. Stephen Hollings | GBR | 8:35.0 | | 5. Franco Fava |  ITA | 8:35.0 | | 6. Hans-Dieter Schulten | FRG | 8:39.8 | | 7. Boualem Rahoui |  ALG | 8:41.0 | | 8. Spyridon Kontossoros | GRE | 8:41.0 | | 9. Georg Kaiser | SUI | 8:45.4 | | 10.Michael Manley | USA | 8:50.4 | | 11.Sverre S0rnes | NOR | 8:54.8 | | 12.Usaia Sotutu |  FIJ | 9:12.0 | | 13.Elias Julio Quevedo |  GUA | 9:28.4 |
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