Heat 1 | | time | gap | L | Y | Rk | 1. Masaru Furukawa | Japan | 2:36.1 | | 5 | 20 | 1. | 2. Knud Gleie | Denmark | 2:36.4 | +0.3s | 6 | 21 | 2. | 3. Farid Dosaiev | Soviet Union | 2:43.9 | +7.8s | 3 | 23 | 10. | 4. Louis Kozma | Belgium | 2:48.4 | +12.3s | 4 | 18 | 12. | 5. Shamsher Khan | India | 3:17.0 | +40.9s | 7 | _ | 14. | -. Octavio Mobiglia | Brazil | DSQ | | 1 | 25 | | -. Palsons Nabiula | Philippines | DSQ | | 2 | _ | |
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Heat 2 | | time | gap | L | Y | Rk | 1. Igor Zaseda | Soviet Union | 2:40.1 | +4.0s | 3 | 24 | 4. | 2. Terry Gathercole | Australia | 2:40.2 | +4.1s | 6 | 21 | 5. | 3. Manuel Sanguily | Cuba | 2:41.8 | +5.7s | 2 | 23 | 7. | 4. Rene Kohn | Luxembourg | 2:50.9 | +14.8s | 4 | 23 | 13. | 5. Istvan Szivos, Sr. | Hungary | 3:18.7 | +42.6s | 7 | 36 | 15. | -. Alvaro Gomez | Colombia | DSQ | | 1 | _ | | -. Herbert Klein | UT Germany | DSQ | | 5 | 33 | |
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