| Ranking | time |   | React. | BY | 
| 1. Pieter Van Den Hoogenband |  NED | 48.96s |   | 0.82 | 78 | 
| 2. Anthony Ervin |  USA | 49.08s |   | 0.68 | 81 | 
| 3. Ian Thorpe |  AUS | 49.21s |   | 0.81 | 82 | 
| 4. Torsten Spanneberg |  GER | 49.40s |   | 0.83 | 75 | 
| 5. Ashley Callus |  AUS | 49.46s |   | 0.74 | 79 | 
| 6. Jason Lezak |  USA | 49.51s |   | 0.73 | 75 | 
| 7. Stefan Nystrand |  SWE | 49.65s |   | 0.76 | 81 | 
| 7. Jose Martin Meolans |  ARG | 49.65s |   | 0.80 | 78 | 
| 9. Attila Zubor |  HUN | 49.73s |   | 0.82 | 75 | 
| 10.Lars Frolander |  SWE | 49.76s |   | 0.75 | 74 | 
| 11.Salim Iles |  ALG | 49.80s |   | 0.71 | 75 | 
| 11.Gustavo Borges |  BRA | 49.80s |   | 0.73 | 72 | 
| 13.Lars Conrad |  GER | 49.89s |   | 0.83 | 76 | 
| 14.Duje Draganja |  CRO | 49.90s |   | 0.81 | 83 | 
| 15.Edvaldo Silva Filho |  BRA | 50.03s |   | 0.67 | 78 | 
| 16.Johan Kenkhuis |  NED | 50.08s |   | 0.78 | 80 | 
|  eliminated | 
| 17.Roland Schoeman |  RSA | 50.13s |   | 0.70 | 00 | 
| 17.Bartosz Kizierowski |  POL | 50.13s |   | 0.71 | 77 | 
| 19.Vyacheslav Shyrshov |  UKR | 50.22s |   | 0.78 | 79 | 
| 20.Karel Novy |  SUI | 50.25s |   | 0.84 | 80 | 
| 21.Simone Cercato |  ITA | 50.41s |   | 0.79 | 75 | 
| 22.Rolandas Gimbutis |  LTU | 50.65s |   | 0.82 | 81 | 
| 23.Nicholas Folker |  RSA | 50.66s |   | 0.68 | 76 | 
| 24.Ivan Mladina |  CRO | 50.73s |   | 0.77 | 80 | 
| 25.Jorge Ulibarri |  ESP | 50.76s |   | 0.76 | 75 | 
| 26.Yoshihiro Okumura |  JPN | 50.91s |   | 0.72 | 83 | 
| 27.Riley Janes |  CAN | 51.19s |   | 0.72 | 80 | 
| 28.Shunsuke Ito |  JPN | 51.29s |   | 0.68 | 76 | 
| 29.Maxim Korchounov |  RUS | 51.40s |   | 0.93 | 77 | 
| 30.Oleksandr Volynets |  UKR | 51.52s |   | 0.80 | 74 | 
| 31.Oswaldo Quevedo |  VEN | 51.63s |   | 0.69 | 76 | 
| 32.Min suk Kim |  KOR | 51.71s |   | 0.76 | 79 | 
| 33.Danil Haustov |  EST | 51.78s |   | 0.78 | 80 | 
| 34.Xufeng Xie |  CHN | 51.81s |   | 0.82 | 78 | 
| 35.Christoph Buhler |  SUI | 51.87s |   | 0.77 | 74 | 
| 36.Kunpeng Ouyang |  CHN | 51.88s |   | 0.75 | 82 | 
| 37.Saulius Binevicius |  LTU | 51.97s |   | 0.90 | 79 | 
| 38.Carl Probert |  FIJ | 52.15s |   | 0.83 | 75 | 
| 39.Alejandro Siqueiros |  MEX | 52.30s |   | 0.74 | 82 | 
| 40.Camilo Becerra |  COL | 52.41s |   | 0.82 | 80 | 
| 41.Nien-pin Wu |  TPE | 52.70s |   | 0.58 | 83 | 
| 42.Mark Chay |  SIN | 52.77s |   | 0.74 | 82 | 
| 43.Ismael Ortiz |  PAN | 52.93s |   | 0.79 | 82 | 
| 44.Brendan Ashby |  ZIM | 53.14s |   | 0.67 | 80 | 
| 45.Gustavo Barrios |  PAN | 53.34s |   | 0.79 | 78 | 
| 46.Ernest Teo |  SIN | 53.39s |   | 0.77 | 76 | 
| 47.Christophe Lim Wen Ying |  MRI | 53.64s |   | 0.73 | 81 | 
| 48.Jacob Fraire |  MEX | 53.76s |   | 0.79 | 80 | 
| 49.Wing harbeth Fu |  HKG | 53.79s |   | 0.75 | 80 | 
| 50.Victor Rogut |  MDA | 53.93s |   | 0.84 | 79 | 
| 51.Chon Kit Alias Joao Tang |  MAC | 53.94s |   | 0.82 | 79 | 
| 52.Gregory Arkhurst |  CIV | 54.01s |   | 0.69 |   | 
| 53.Christophee Backisavs |  DOM | 54.05s |   | 0.85 | 85 | 
| 54.Ronald Cowen |  BER | 54.65s |   | 0.71 | 80 | 
| 55.Nicholas Diaper |  KEN | 54.71s |   | 0.70 | 80 | 
| 56.Kenny Roberts |  SEY | 54.76s |   | 0.77 | 78 | 
| 57.Cliff Gittens |  BAR | 54.96s |   | 0.74 | 83 | 
| 58.Vakhtang Beridze |  GEO | 54.99s |   | 0.72 | 80 | 
| 59.Bing-ru Jiang |  TPE | 55.03s |   | 0.79 |   | 
| 60.Ahmed Obaid S Obaid Al Jassimi |  UAE | 55.05s |   | 0.82 | 81 | 
| 61.Saad Khalloqi |  MAR | 55.08s |   | 0.87 | 78 | 
| 62.Khuwiater Saeed Had Al Dhaheri |  UAE | 55.15s |   | 0.69 | 79 | 
| 63.Gael Souci |  MRI | 55.21s |   | 0.73 | 84 | 
| 64.Khaly Ciss |  SEN | 55.25s |   | 0.83 | 81 | 
| 65.Davy Rolando Bisslik |  ARU | 55.32s |   | 0.76 | 82 | 
| 66.Aleksey Bortnikov |  UZB | 55.56s |   | 0.82 | 83 | 
| 67.Barnsley Albert |  SEY | 55.91s |   | 0.88 | 74 | 
| 68.Arwut Chinnapasaen |  THA | 55.92s |   | 0.78 | 80 | 
| 69.Wing Cheung Victor Wong |  MAC | 56.24s |   | 0.76 | 84 | 
| 70.Omar Nunez |  NCA | 56.75s |   | 0.84 | 83 | 
| 71.Yu-lung Lubrey Lim |  MAS | 57.23s |   | 0.90 | 82 | 
| 72.Zie Ahmed Oyattara |  CIV | 57.44s |   | 0.86 | 81 | 
| 73.Onan Thom |  GUY | 57.56s |   | 0.72 | 84 | 
| 74.Hamid Nassir |  KEN | 57.68s |   | 0.71 | 84 | 
| 75.Rainui Teriipaia |  TAH | 57.69s |   | 0.81 | 00 | 
| 76.Joao Carlos da S.Paquet Aguiar |  ANG | 57.76s |   | 0.75 | 83 | 
| 77.Seung gin Lee |  NMA | 57.83s |   | 0.73 | 85 | 
| 78.Mark Unpingco |  GUM | 58.33s |   | 0.76 | 83 | 
| 79.William Kang |  GUM | 58.36s |   | 0.78 | 85 | 
| 80.Ganaa Galbadrakh |  MGL | 58.49s |   | 0.80 | 74 | 
| 81.Nuno Miguel Cardoso Rola |  ANG | 58.51s |   | 0.78 | 83 | 
| 82.Dean Palacios |  NMA | 58.77s |   | 0.68 | 86 | 
| 83.Sule Cole Shade |  CMR | 1:01.70 |   | 0.75 | 80 | 
| 84.Rony Bakale |  CGO | 1:02.38 |   | 0.88 | 87 | 
| 85.Joe Atuhairwe |  UGA | 1:07.71 |   | 0.85 | 78 | 
| 86.Ibrahim Ismael Mamadou |  NIG | 1:11.78 |   | 1.18 | 80 | 
| 87.Fabrice Ndikumana |  BDI | 1:15.05 |   | 1.31 | 83 | 
| 88.Joshua Robert Marfleet |  SAM | 1:29.41 |   | 0.98 | 87 | 
| -. Eithan Urbach |  ISR | DNS |   |   | 77 | 
| -. Hesham Shehab |  BRN | DNS |   |   | 88 | 
| -. Richard sam Bera |  INA | DNS |   |   | 71 | 
| -. George Bovell |  TRI | DNS |   |   | 83 | 
| -. Lorenzo Vismara |  ITA | DNS |   |   | 75 | 
| -. Peter Mankoc |  SLO | DNS |   |   | 78 |