| Heat 1 | | time | | | 1. José Antonio Redolat |  Spain | 3:41.53 | Q | | 6. Luís Feiteira |  Portugal | 3:42.43 | Q | | 7. Balázs Tölgyesi |  Hungary | 3:42.66 | Q | | 9. Juan Carlos Higuero | Spain | 3:42.88 | q | | 10.Branko Zorko |  Croatia | 3:42.92 | | | 11.Gareth Turnbull |  Ireland | 3:42.97 | PB | | 12.Lorenzo Lazzari |  Italy | 3:43.06 | | | 14.Patrick Grammens |  Belgium | 3:45.96 | PB | | 15.Piotr Rostkowski |  Poland | 3:46.45 | |
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| Heat 2 | | time | | | 2. Mehdi Baala |  France | 3:41.76 | Q | | 3. Vyacheslav Shabunin |  Russia | 3:41.84 | Q | | 4. James Nolan | Ireland | 3:41.90 | Q | | 5. Marko Koers |  Netherlands | 3:42.13 | q, PB | | 8. Peter Philipp |  Switzerland | 3:42.81 | q | | 13.Antonio Travassos | Portugal | 3:45.45 | | | 16.Pedro Esteso | Spain | 3:48.94 | | | 17.Eddie King |  Great Britain | 3:49.18 | |
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