| Final | time | | | 1. Miklós Szabó |  HUN | 1:52.0 | NR | | 2. Mario Lanzi |  ITA | 1:52.0 | | | 3. Wolfgang Dessecker |  GER | 1:52.2 | | | 4. Eric Ny |  SWE | 1:52.4 | | | 5. Erik Wennberg | SWE | 1:53.1 | | | 6. Kazimierz Kucharski |  POL | 1:53.4 | NR | | 7. Raymond Petit |  FRA | 1:54.0 | | | 8. Pierre Hemmer |  LUX | 1:55.8 | NR | | 9. Jean Keller | FRA | No time | |
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| Venue: Estadio Benito Mussolini. | | History Men 800m |
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| | | First 3 progress to Final. |
| Heat 1 | time | | | 1. Erik Wennberg | SWE | 1:58.7 | Q | | 2. Miklós Szabó | HUN | 1:58.9 | Q | | 3. Pierre Hemmer | LUX | 1:59.1 | Q | | 4. Ademar Jürlau |  EST | 1:59.2 | |
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| Heat 2 | time | | | 1. Wolfgang Dessecker | GER | 1:57.0 | Q | | 2. Kazimierz Kucharski | POL | 1:57.5 | Q | | 3. Jean Keller | FRA | 1:57.6 | Q | | 4. Evzen Rosický |  TCH | 1:57.8 | |
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| Heat 3 | time | | | 1. Mario Lanzi | ITA | 1:51.8 | Q | | 2. Eric Ny | SWE | 1:53.0 | Q | | 3. Raymond Petit | FRA | 1:55.3 | Q | | 4. Georg Puchberger |  AUT | 1:57.0 | |
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