Heat 4 | | time | | gap | L | 1. Vladimir Salnikov | Soviet Union | 3:53.35 | | | - | 2. Borut Petric | Yugoslavia | 3:53.37 | NR | +0.02s | - | 3. Arne Borgstrom | Sweden | 3:55.37 | NR | +2.02s | - | 4. Darjan Petric | Yugoslavia | 3:56.25 | | +2.90s | - | 13.Frank Wenmann | West Germany | 3:59.52 | | +6.17s | - | 15.Hendrik Steenberge | Belgium | 4:01.29 | NR | +7.94s | - | 19.Petar Kochanov | Bulgaria | 4:03.14 | | +9.79s | - | 20.Piotr Gaik | Poland | 4:03.19 | | +9.84s | - |
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Heat 3 | | time | | gap | L | 5. Sandor Nagy | Hungary | 3:56.33 | | +2.98s | - | 8. Andrew Astbury | Great Britain | 3:57.44 | NR | +4.09s | - | 10.Alexander Chaev | Soviet Union | 3:58.70 | | +5.35s | - | 16.Giorgio Quadri | Italy | 4:01.80 | | +8.45s | - | 21.Kalle Elias | Sweden | 4:04.01 | | +10.66s | - | 22.Pierre Andraca | France | 4:06.47 | | +13.12s | - | -. Martin Roedseth | Norway | DNS | | | - |
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