| Final | time | | gap | | 1. Jozsef Katona |  Hungary | 17:49.5 | | | | 2. Miguel Torres |  Spain | 17:55.6 | NR | +6.1s | | 3. Richard Camplon |  Great Britain | 17:59.8 | | +10.3s | | 4. Johan Bontekoe |  Netherlands | 18:06.1 | NR | +16.6s | | 5. James Kennedy | Great Britain | 18:12.7 | | +23.1s | | 6. Veljko Rogusic |  Yugoslavia | 18:24.9 | | +35.4s | | 7. Lars Bengtsson |  Sweden | 18:32.5 | | +43.0s | | -. Hans Rosendahl | Sweden | DNS | | |
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Heats - Friday, 24th August |
| Heat 1 | time | | Rk. | | 1. Richard Camplon | Great Britain | 18:29.2 | | 6. | | 2. Giovanni Orlando |  Italy | 18:32.5 | | 9. | | 3. Kristian Lenger |  Poland | 18:38.5 | NR | 10. | | 4. Jon Vengel |  Norway | 18:39.4 | NR | 11. | | 5. Otto Christensen |  Denmark | 19:10.2 | NR | 17. |
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| Heat 2 | time | | Rk. | | 1. Miguel Torres | Spain | 17:58.7 | NR | 1. | | 2. Lars Bengtsson | Sweden | 18:30.5 | | 8. | | 3. Jurgen Bachmann |  East Germany | 18:58.8 | | 16. | | 4. Jordan Aleksandrov |  Bulgaria | 20:05.4 | | 21. |
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| Heat 3 | time | | Rk. | | 1. Veljko Rogusic | Yugoslavia | 18:05.6 | NR | 2. | | 2. Johan Bontekoe | Netherlands | 18:18.6 | NR | 3. | | 3. Hans Rosendahl | Sweden | 18:26.6 | | 5. | | 4. Dieter Pfeifer |  Austria | 18:48.6 | | 14. | | 5. Stanislaw Kedzia | Poland | 18:57.2 | | 15. | | 6. Hannu Vaahtoranta |  Finland | 19:10.3 | | 18. |
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| Heat 4 | time | Rk. | | 1. Jozsef Katona | Hungary | 18:22.7 | 4. | | 2. James Kennedy | Great Britain | 18:29.9 | 7. | | 3. Tino Jansen | Netherlands | 18:41.3 | 12. | | 4. Peotr Pikalov |  Soviet Union | 18:46.3 | 13. | | 5. Juan Fortuny | Spain | 19:15.5 | 19. | | 6. Sergio De Gregorio | Italy | 19:26.6 | 20. | | 7. Antonio de Almeida Basto |  Portugal | 20:33.7 | 22. |
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