| 1 | Reuben Kosgei | KEN | 8:21,96 | Q |
| 2 | Brahim Boulami | MAR | 8:21,98 | Q |
| 3 | Luis Miguel Martín | ESP | 8:25,09 | Q |
| 4 | Eliseo Martín | ESP | 8:26,18 | Q |
| 5 | Ali Ezzine | MAR | 8:26,86 | Q |
| 6 | Joël Bourgeois | CAN | 8:26,92 | Q |
| 7 | Tim Broe | USA | 8:27,26 | q |
| 8 | Gaël Pencreach | FRA | 8:28,54 | q |
| 9 | Frédéric Denis | FRA | 8:41,66 | |
| 10 | Yoshitaka Iwamizu | JPN | 8:45,25 | |
| 11 | Tom Chorny | USA | 8:51,74 | |
| Simon Vroemen | NED | DNF |
| 1 | Antonio Jiménez | ESP | 8:25,37 | Q |
| 2 | Raymond Yator | KEN | 8:25,45 | Q |
| 3 | Bernard Barmasai | KEN | 8:25,65 | Q |
| 4 | Khamis Abdullah Saifeldin | QAT | 8:25,83 | Q |
| 5 | Ralf Assmus | GER | 8:29,52 | Q |
| 6 | Bouabdallah Tahri | FRA | 8:29,71 | Q |
| 7 | Christian Belz | SUI | 8:31,57 | q |
| 8 | Elarbi Khattabi | MAR | 8:32,70 | |
| 9 | Laïd Bessou | ALG | 8:33,40 | |
| 10 | Jim Svenøy | NOR | 8:35,71 | |
| 11 | Anthony Famiglietti | USA | 8:44,54 | |
| 12 | José Salvador Miranda | MEX | 8:49,47 | |
| 13 | Madan Raj Giri | NEP | 9:34,97 |