| 1 | Yunxia Qu | CHN | |
8:28,71 |
| 2 | Linli Zhang | CHN | |
8:29,25 |
| 3 | Lirong Zhang | CHN | |
8:31,95 |
| 4 | Sonia O'Sullivan | IRL | 8:33,38 | |
| 5 | Alison Wyeth | GBR | 8:38,42 | |
| 6 | Yelena Romanova | RUS | 8:39,69 | |
| 7 | Paula Radcliffe | GBR | 8:40,40 | |
| 8 | Lyudmila Borisova | RUS | 8:40,78 | |
| 9 | Yvonne Murray | GBR | 8:43,46 | |
| 10 | Annette Peters | USA | 8:45,56 | |
| 11 | Yelena-Ebru Kopytova-Kavaklioglu | RUS | 8:50,49 | |
| 12 | Claudia Lokar | GER | 8:51,35 | |
| 13 | Annemari Sandell | FIN | 8:53,58 | |
| 14 | Luminita Zaituc | ROM | 9:01,38 | |
| 15 | Esther Kiplagat | KEN | 9:07,05 |