| Final | | time | | L | | 1. Pietro Mennea |  Italy | 46.51s | | 2 | | 2. Ryszard Podlas |  Poland | 46.55s | | 4 | | 3. Nikolay Chernetskiy |  Soviet Union | 46.72s | | 3 | | 4. Željko Knapić |  Yugoslavia | 47.83s | | 1 |
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| | First 2 from each Semi and next Best 2 advanced to Final. |
| Semi 1 | | time | | | 3. Nikolay Chernetskiy | Soviet Union | 47.29s | Q | | 4. Željko Knapić | Yugoslavia | 47.61s | Q | | 6. Alfonso Di Guida | Italy | 47.86s | | | 7. Nándor Hornyacsek |  Hungary | 48.06s | |
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| Semi 2 | | time | | | 1. Ryszard Podlas | Poland | 47.08s | Q | | 2. Pietro Mennea | Italy | 47.16s | Q | | 5. Vasiliy Arkhipenko | Soviet Union | 47.71s | | | 8. Karel Kolář |  Czechoslovakia | 48.62s | |
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| Heat 1 | | time | | | 9. Nándor Hornyacsek | Hungary | 48.64s | Q | | 11.Vasiliy Arkhipenko | Soviet Union | 48.79s | Q | | 12.Giovanni Bongiorni | Italy | 48.79s | |
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| Heat 2 | | time | | | 1. Nikolay Chernetskiy | Soviet Union | 47.20s | Q | | 2. Ryszard Podlas | Poland | 47.80s | Q | | 6. Eddy De Leeuw |  Belgium | 48.34s | | | 9. Yanko Bratanov |  Bulgaria | 48.64s | |
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| Heat 3 | | time | | | 3. Alfonso Di Guida | Italy | 47.96s | Q | | 4. Karel Kolář | Czechoslovakia | 47.96s | Q | | 5. Narzis Popov | Bulgaria | 48.19s | |
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| Heat 4 | | time | | | 7. Pietro Mennea | Italy | 48.40s | Q | | 8. Željko Knapić | Yugoslavia | 48.55s | Q | | 13.Pavel Pavlov | Bulgaria | 48.83s | |
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