| Final | time | | | 1. Alan Pascoe |  GBR | 48.82s | CR | | 2. Jean-Claude Nallet |  FRA | 48.94s | | | 3. Yevgeniy Gavrilenko |  URS | 49.32s | | | 4. Stavros Tziortzis |  GRE | 49.71s | | | 5. Dmitriy Stukalov | URS | 49.98s | | | 6. Viktor Savchenko | URS | 50.01s | | | 7. Jerzy Hewelt |  POL | 50.26s | | | 8. Rolf Ziegler |  FRG | 50.49s | |
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| | | First 4 progress to Final. |
| Semi 1 | time | & | | 1. Dmitriy Stukalov | URS | 49.67s | Q | | 2. Alan Pascoe | GBR | 49.77s | Q | | 3. Stavros Tziortzis | GRE | 49.79s | Q | | 4. Rolf Ziegler | FRG | 49.87s | Q | | 5. Miroslav Kodejš |  TCH | 49.93s | | | 6. François Aumas |  SUI | 50.46s | | | 7. Yanko Bratanov |  BUL | 50.66s | NR | | 8. Jochen Mayer |  GDR | 50.71s | |
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| Semi 2 | time | & | | 1. Yevgeniy Gavrilenko | URS | 49.63s | Q | | 2. Jerzy Hewelt | POL | 49.79s | NR Q | | 3. Jean-Claude Nallet | FRA | 49.79s | Q | | 4. Viktor Savchenko | URS | 49.88s | Q | | 5. Klaus Schönberger | GDR | 50.04s | | | 6. Bill Hartley | GBR | 50.55s | | | 7. Frank Nusse |  NED | 51.14s | | | 8. Ivan Daniš | TCH | 53.28s | |
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Heats - Monday 02.09 | | First 3 and Best 4 progressed to Semi-Finals. |
| Heat 1 | time | | | 1. Miroslav Kodejš | TCH | 50.31s | Q | | 2. Viktor Savchenko | URS | 50.36s | Q | | 3. Bill Hartley | GBR | 50.42s | Q | | 4. François Aumas | SUI | 50.50s | q | | 5. Yanko Bratanov | BUL | 51.02s | q | | 6. Georgios Parris | GRE | 51.44s | |
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| Heat 2 | time | | | 1. Dmitriy Stukalov | URS | 50.48s | Q | | 2. Jerzy Hewelt | POL | 50.54s | Q | | 3. Klaus Schönberger | GDR | 50.60s | Q | | 4. Frank Nusse | NED | 50.73s | NR q | | 5. José Carvalho |  POR | 51.32s | | | 6. Giorgio Ballati |  ITA | 51.47s | |
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| Heat 3 | time | | | 1. Jean-Claude Nallet | FRA | 50.16s | Q | | 2. Jochen Mayer | GDR | 50.88s | Q | | 3. Ivan Daniš | TCH | 51.09s | Q | | 4. Werner Reibert | FRG | 51.18s | | | 5. Steve Black | GBR | 51.19s | | | 6. Yordan Yordanov | BUL | 52.05s | | | 7. Gert Möller |  SWE | 52.72s | |
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| Heat 4 | time | | | 1. Yevgeniy Gavrilenko | URS | 50.28s | Q | | 2. Rolf Ziegler | FRG | 50.35s | Q | | 3. Alan Pascoe | GBR | 50.54s | Q | | 4. Stavros Tziortzis | GRE | 50.65s | q | | 5. Jan Struyk | NED | 51.83s | |
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