| 1 | Kevin Little | USA | 20,83 | Q |
| 2 | Darryl Wohlsen | AUS | 21,06 | Q |
| 3 | Erik Wijmeersch | BEL | 21,74 | |
| Prodromos Katsantonis | CYp | DNS |
| 1 | Obadele Thompson | BAR | 20,84 | Q |
| 2 | Patrick van Balkom | NED | 20,94 | Q |
| 3 | John Regis | GBR | 21,23 | |
| 4 | Bostjan Horvat | SLO | 21,35 |
| 1 | Francis Obikwelu | NGR | 20,87 | Q |
| 2 | Juan Pedro Toledo | MEX | 21,02 | Q |
| 3 | Ryszard Pilarczyk | POL | 21,10 | q |
| 4 | Hamoud Abdallah Al-Dalhami | OMN | 21,99 |
| 1 | Frank Fredericks | NAM | 20,84 | Q |
| 2 | Carlos Gats | ARG | 21,08 | Q |
| 3 | Petko Yankov | BUL | 21,10 | q |
| 4 | Chen Tien-Wen | TPE | 21,82 | |
| 5 | Menzi Dlamini | SWZ | 22,57 |
| 1 | Alexandros Alexopoulos | GRE | 20,87 | Q |
| 2 | Chris Donaldson | NZL | 21,01 | Q |
| 3 | Anninos Markoullides | CYP | 21,02 | q |
| 4 | Marc Foucan | FRA | 21,28 | |
| 5 | Kazuhiro Takahashi | JPN | 21,35 |
| 1 | Rohsaan Griffin | RSA | 20,83 | Q |
| 2 | Marcus Adam | GBR | 20,98 | Q |
| 3 | Marcin Urbas | POL | 21,01 | q |
| 4 | O'Brien Gibbons | CAN | 21,31 | |
| 5 | Silas Helo | SOL | 23,13 |
| 1 | Koji Ito | JPN | 20,76 | Q |
| 2 | Ivan Garcia | CUB | 20,89 | Q |
| 3 | Christophe Cheval | FRA | 21,02 | q |
| 4 | Malik-Khaled Louahla | ALG | 21,24 | |
| 5 | Kwame Galloway | MNT | 24,32 |