| Final | time | L | | 1. Roger Pyttel |  GDR | 55.49s | 5 | | 2. Per Arvidsson |  SWE | 55.58s | 4 | | 3. John Mills |  GBR | 55.98s | 3 | | 4. Michael Kraus |  FRG | 56.22s | 2 | | 5. Aleksandr Manatsyinskiy |  URS | 56.37s | 7 | | 6. Tommy Lindell | SWE | 56.52s | 6 | | 7. Klaus Steinbach | FRG | 56.68s | 1 | | 8. Evgeniy Seredin | URS | 57.01s | 8 |
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| Per Arvidsson with better time in the heats. |
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Heats - Thursday, 18th August |
| Heat 1 | time | Rk. | | 1. Tommy Lindell | SWE | 56.47s | 4. | | 2. Aleksandr Manatsyinskiy | URS | 56.64s | 6. | | 3. Rene Pltaschke | FRG | 57.38s | 9. | | 4. Tamas Mikola |  HUN | 58.01s | --. | | 5. Elmar Junger |  SUI | | --. | | 6. Frank van Kesteren |  NED | 1:02.94 | 19. |
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| Heat 2 | time | Rk. | | 1. John Mills | GBR | 56.27s | 3. | | 2. Michael Kraus | FRG | 56.55s | 5. | | 3. Klaus Steinbach | FRG | 56.98s | 7. | | 4. Kees Vervoorn | NED | 57.40s | 10. | | 5. Alessandro Griffit |  ITA | 57.40s | --. | | 6. Paulo Frischknecht |  POR | 57.98s | --. | | 7. Kurt Dittrich |  AUT | 1:00.53 | 18. |
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| Heat 3 | time | Rk. | | 1. Per Arvidsson | SWE | 55.44s | 1. | | 2. Roger Pyttel | GDR | 55.47s | 2. | | 3. Evgeniy Seredin | URS | 57.25s | 8. | | 4. Milos Loekasek |  TCH | 57.63s | --. | | 5. Carlo Rossato | ITA | 58.17s | --. | | 6. Philip Hubble | GBR | 58.25s | --. | | 7. Zafer Atamer |  TUR | 1:03.19 | 20. |
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