| Final |   | time |   | L  |  | 1. Yevgeniy Lomtyev |   Soviet Union | 46.20s | PB | 3  |  | 2. Ainsley Bennett |   Great Britain | 46.43s |   | 4  |  | 3. šngel Heras |   Spain | 46.57s |   | 1  |  | 4. Christoph Trappe |   West Germany | 46.62s |   | 5  |  | 5. Dušan Malovec |   Czechoslovakia | 46.65s | NR | 2  |   
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  |  | First 3 from each Semi advanced to Final.  |   
| Semi 1 |   | time |   |  | 1. Ainsley Bennett |   Great Britain | 46.87s | Q |  | 2. Yevgeniy Lomtyev |   Soviet Union | 46.93s | Q |  | 3. šngel Heras |   Spain | 47.08s | q |  | 4. Toma Tomov |   Bulgaria | 47.35s |   |  | 5. Jean-Jacques Février |   France | 47.84s |   |   
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| Semi 2 |   | time |   |  | 6. Christoph Trappe |   West Germany | 47.90s | Q |  | 7. DuÅ¡an Malovec |   Czechoslovakia | 47.94s | Q |  | 8. Bozhidar Konstantinov |   Bulgaria | 48.25s |   |  | -. Sergey Lovachov |   Soviet Union | DNS |   |  | -. Sándor ÃÅ¡jhelyi |   Hungary | DNS |   |   
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  Heats - Saturday, |  | First 2 from each Heat and Best 4 times advanced to Semi-Finals.  |   
| Heat 1 |   | time |   |  | 1. Å¡ngel Heras |   Spain | 47.33s | Q |  | 3. Sándor ÃÅ¡jhelyi |   Hungary | 47.51s | Q |  | 5. Bozhidar Konstantinov |   Bulgaria | 47.70s | Q |  | 8. Jean-Jacques Février |   France | 47.80s | q |  | 11.Stefano Malinverni |   Italy | 48.06s |   |   
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| Heat 2 |   | time |   |  | 2. Sergey Lovachov |   Soviet Union | 47.41s | Q |  | 10.Toma Tomov |   Bulgaria | 48.04s | Q |  | 12.Christoph Trappe |   West Germany | 48.17s | Q |  | 13.Andreas Kaufmann |   Switzerland | 48.34s |   |  | 14.Gusztáv Menczer |   Hungary | 48.54s |   |   
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| Heat 3 |   | time |   |  | 4. Ainsley Bennett |   Great Britain | 47.68s | Q |  | 6. Yevgeniy Lomtyev |   Soviet Union | 47.73s | Q |  | 7. Dušan Malovec |   Czechoslovakia | 47.77s | Q |  | 9. István Takács |   Hungary | 48.00s |   |   
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