| 1 | Gabriela Szabo | ROM | 15:26,62 | Q | |
| 2 | Paula Radcliffe | GBR | 15:27,25 | Q | |
| 3 | Harumi Hiroyama | JPN | 15:27,75 | Q | |
| 4 | Roberta Brunet | ITA | 15:29,03 | Q | |
| 5 | Ayelech Worku | ETH | 15:29,37 | Q | |
| 6 | Li Wei | CHN | 15:29,62 | Q | |
| 7 | Libbie Hickman | USA | 15:30,56 | q | |
| 8 | Gunhild Halle | NOR | 15:32,13 | q | |
| 9 | Kate Anderson | AUS | 15:36,16 | q | |
| 10 | Yelena Kopytova | RUS | 15:37,19 | ||
| 11 | Adriana Fernandez | MEX | 15:41,55 | ||
| 12 | Melody Fairchild | USA | 15:47,66 | ||
| 13 | Marina Bastos | POR | 15:54,01 | ||
| 14 | Valerie Vaughan | IRL | 15:57,58 | ||
| 15 | Zohra Ouaziz | MAR | 15:58,84 | ||
| 16 | Genet Gebregiorgis | ETH | 16:04,40 | ||
| 17 | Laurence Duquenoy | FRA | 16:06,02 | ||
| 18 | Justine Nahimana | BUR | 17:21,77 | ||
| 19 | Habtemariam Nebiat | ERI | 18:26,50 | ||
| 20 | Zalia Aliou | TOG | 18:34,45 | NR | |
| 21 | Martha Portobanco | NCA | 19:08,44 | ||
| Maysa Matrood | IRQ | DNS | |||
| Elana Meyer | RSA | DNS |
| 1 | Fernanda Ribeiro | POR | 15:27,30 | Q | |
| 2 | Jianying Liu | CHN | 15:29,28 | Q | |
| 3 | Lydia Cheromei | KEN | 15:32,00 | Q | |
| 4 | Merima Denboba | ETH | 15:32,01 | Q | |
| 5 | Naoko Takahashi | JPN | 15:32,25 | Q | |
| 6 | Yuko Kawakami | JPN | 15:32,71 | Q | |
| 7 | Sonia O'Sullivan | IRL | 15:40,82 | ||
| 8 | Stela Olteanu | ROM | 15:40,86 | ||
| 9 | Olivera Jevtic | YUG | 15:43,76 | ||
| 10 | Chrystosomia Iakovou | GRE | 15:51,14 | ||
| 11 | Restituta Joseph | TAN | 15:55,22 | NR | |
| 12 | Amy Rudolph | USA | 16:00,87 | ||
| 13 | Una English | IRL | 16:07,09 | ||
| 14 | Jelena Chelnova | LAT | 16:27,63 | ||
| 15 | Helena Javornik | SLO | 16:28,38 | ||
| Anne Hare | NZL | DNF | |||
| Kristina De Fonseca-Wollheim | GER | DNF | |||
| Carol Howe | CAN | DNS | |||
| Annemari Sandell | FIN | DNS |