Heat 1 | time | 1. Miruts Yifter | ETH | 13:44.4 | 2. Hansjorg Kunze | GDR | 13:44.4 | 3. Nicholas Rose | GBR | 13:44.7 | 4. John Treacy | IRL | 13:44.8 | 5. Alex Hagelsteens | BEL | 13:44.9 | 6. Aleksandr Fedotkin | URS | 13:45.6 | 7. David Fitzsimmons | AUS | 13:46.4 | 8. Enrique Aquino | MEX | 13:48.9 | 9. Gopal Saini | IND | 14:06.6 | 10. Robert Chideka | BOT | 14:47.2 | 11. Laxaman Basnet | NEP | 16:11.7 | -. Lasse Viren | FIN | DNS |
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Heat 2 | time | 1. Markus Ryffel | SUI | 13:45.0 | 2. Suleiman Nyambui | TAN | 13:45.4 | 3. Eamonn Coghlan | IRL | 13:45.4 | 4. Dietmar Millonig | AUT | 13:45.7 | 5. Yohannes Mohammed | ETH | 13:45.8 | 6. Kaarlo Maaninka | FIN | 13:45.8 | 7. Barry Smith | GBR | 13:46.3 | 8. Enn Sellik | URS | 13:52.4 | 9. Rachid Habchaoui | ALG | 13:59.9 | 10.Zephania Nsube | ZIM | 14:06.7 | 11.Pedro Molomo | MOZ | 15:11.9 | 12.Amadou Alimi | BEN | 15:44.0 |
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Heat 3 | time | 1. Elhachemi Abdenouz | ALG | 13:42.1 | 2. Mohammed Kedir | ETH | 13:42.7 | 3. Valeri Abramov | URS | 13:42.9 | 4. Emiel Puttemans | BEL | 13:43.0 | 5. David Moorcroft | GBR | 13:43.0 | 6. Jiri Sikora | TCH | 13:43.1 | 7. Stephen Austin | AUS | 13:43.2 | 8. Martti Vainio | FIN | 13:45.2 | 9. Zakaria Barie | TAN | 13:49.9 | 10.Michael O'shea | IRL | 14:03.0 | 11.Bernardo Manuel | ANG | 14:51.4 | 12.Saleh Elali | SYR | 15:08.2 | -. Ilie Floroiu | ROM | DNS |
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