| Final | time | | gap | back | butter | breast | | 1. Gennadi Androsov |  Soviet Union | 5:01.3 | NR | | 1:08.9 | 2:25.3 | 3:50.0 | | 2. Jan Jiskoot |  Netherlands | 5:05.5 | NR | +4.2s | 1:04.0 | 2:21.9 | 3:56.2 | | 3. Jurgen Bachmann |  East Germany | 5:05.9 | NR | +4.6s | 1:07.3 | 2:26.4 | 3:56.1 | | 4. Dieter Pfeifer | East Germany | 5:08.4 | | +7.1s | | | | | 5. Hannu Vaahtoranta |  Finland | 5:11.6 | | +10.3s | | | | | 6. Heimo Toivonen | Finland | 5:11.9 | | +10.6s | | | | | 7. Boris Gavrilov | Soviet Union | 5:12.1 | | +10.8s | | | | | 8. Jozsef Katona |  Hungary | 5:18.3 | | +17.0s | | | |
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Heats - Sunday, 19th August |
| Heat 1 | time | | Rk. | | 1. Heimo Toivonen | Finland | 5:19.1 | | 8. | | 2. Antonio de Almeida |  Portugal | 5:24.0 | NR | 13. | | 3. Henri Van Osch | Netherlands | 5:27.0 | | 15. | | 4. Gislason |  Iceland | 5:29,2 | | 16. | | 5. Francesco Spinola |  Italy | 5:31.2 | | 17. | | 6. Czeslaw Olbert |  Poland | 5:39.6 | | 18. |
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| Heat 2 | time | | Rk. | | 1. Dieter Pfeifer | East Germany | 5:09.4 | NR | 2. | | 2. Jozsef Katona | Hungary | 5:14.1 | NR | 6. | | 3. Boris Gavrilov | Soviet Union | 5:15.9 | | 7. | | 4. Jan Widawski | Poland | 5:23.2 | | 11. | | 5. Graham Symonds |  Great Britain | 5:26.1 | | 14. | | 6. Per Arne Pedersen |  Norway | 5:47.5 | | 19. |
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| Heat 3 | time | | Rk. | | 1. Jan Jiskoot | Netherlands | 5:08.4 | NR | 1. | | 2. Jurgen Bachman | East Germany | 5:12.1 | | 3. | | 3. Hannu Vaahrtoranta | Finland | 5:12.3 | | 4. | | 4. Gennadi Androsov | Soviet Union | 5:13.3 | | 5. | | 5. Miguel Torres |  Spain | 5:19.8 | | 9. | | 6. Masimo Rosi | Italy | 5:20.5 | NR | 10. | | 7. Imre Bombos | Hungary | 5:23.5 | | 12. |
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