| 1 | Khalid Skah | MAR | 28:23,28 | Q | |
| 2 | Eamonn Martin | GBR | 28:23,42 | Q | |
| 3 | Thomas Osano | KEN | 28:23,56 | Q | |
| 4 | Mathias Ntawulikura | RWA | 28:23,75 | Q | |
| 5 | Aloÿs Nizigama | BUR | 28:23,80 | Q | |
| 6 | Aaron Ramirez | USA | 28:24,52 | Q | |
| 7 | Haruo Urata | JPN | 28:24,70 | Q | |
| 8 | Moses Tanui | KEN | 28:25,52 | Q | |
| 9 | Stéphane Franke | GER | 28:30,13 | q | |
| 10 | Koichi Morishita | JPN | 28:34,29 | q | |
| 11 | Geraldo De Assis | BRA | 28:51,25 | ||
| 12 | Antonio Prieto | ESP | 28:57,28 | ||
| 13 | Carey Nelson | CAN | 29:07,27 | ||
| 14 | John Mwathiwa | MAW | 30:31,43 | ||
| 15 | Tsuluunbaatar Ariunsaikhan | MGL | 30:50,77 | ||
| 16 | Gerard De Gaetano | MLT | 31:03,21 | NR | |
| 17 | Lucas Eningo Elonga | GEQ | 35:31,57 | NR | |
| John Halvorsen | NOR | DNF | |||
| Antonio Fabian Silio | ARG | DNF | |||
| Arturo Barrios | MEX | DNS |
| 1 | Addis Abebe | ETH | 28:23,77 | Q |
| 2 | Richard Chelimo | KEN | 28:23,79 | Q |
| 3 | Richard Nerurkar | GBR | 28:24,03 | Q |
| 4 | Katsumi Ikeda | JPN | 28:26,14 | Q |
| 5 | Hammou Boutayeb | MAR | 28:26,54 | Q |
| 6 | Salvatore Antibo | ITA | 28:26,72 | Q |
| 7 | Fernando Couto | POR | 28:27,56 | Q |
| 8 | Alejandro Gómez | ESP | 28:29,37 | Q |
| 9 | Marti Ten Kate | NED | 28:31,66 | q |
| 10 | Andy Bristow | GBR | 28:41,60 | q |
| 11 | Steve Plasencia | USA | 28:47,13 | |
| 12 | Jesus Herrera | MEX | 28:59,22 | |
| 13 | Vincent Rousseau | BEL | 28:59,34 | |
| 14 | Zoltán Káldy | HUN | 29:00,89 | |
| 15 | José Manuel Albentosa | ESP | 29:20,92 | |
| 16 | Ahmed Al Hamshani | JOR | 31:13,52 | |
| Manny Lolin | MSH | DNF | ||
| Silvio Guerra | ECU | DNS | ||
| Miguel Angel Vargas Guerrero | CRC | DNS | ||
| Manuel Moreno | CVD | DNS |