| 1 | Ezekiel Kemboi | KEN | 8:18,09 | Q | |
| 2 | Simon Vroemen | NED | 8:18,24 | Q | |
| 3 | José Luis Blanco | ESP | 8:18,76 | Q | |
| 4 | Yoshitaka Iwamizu | JPN | 8:18,93 | Q | NR |
| 5 | Khamis Abdullah Saifeldin | QAT | 8:19,64 | q | |
| 6 | Ali Ezzine | MAR | 8:20,10 | q | |
| 7 | Luleseged Wale | ETH | 8:21,30 | q | |
| 8 | Peter Nowill | AUS | 8:26,22 | ||
| 9 | Michael Kipyego | KEN | 8:27,45 | ||
| 10 | Daniel Lincoln | USA | 8:32,47 | ||
| 11 | Vincent Le Dauphin | FRA | 8:36,42 | ||
| 12 | Matthew Kerr | CAN | 8:57,62 |
| 1 | Saif Saaeed Shaheen | QAT | 8:22,20 | Q |
| 2 | Jukka Keskisalo | FIN | 8:22,41 | Q |
| 3 | Eliseo Martín | ESP | 8:22,54 | Q |
| 4 | Abraham Cherono | KEN | 8:22,67 | Q |
| 5 | Boštjan Buc | SLO | 8:22,89 | |
| 6 | Zouhair El Ouardi | MAR | 8:23,75 | |
| 7 | Abdelhakim Mazouz | ALG | 8:24,60 | |
| 8 | Martin Pröll | AUT | 8:25,84 | |
| 9 | Mustafa Mohamed | SWE | 8:25,99 | |
| 10 | Lotfi Turki | TUN | 8:28,95 | |
| 11 | Angelo Iannelli | ITA | 8:36,08 | |
| 12 | Robert Gary | USA | 8:38,20 |
| 1 | Luis Miguel Martín | ESP | 8:19,09 | Q |
| 2 | Bouabdallah Tahri | FRA | 8:19,44 | Q |
| 3 | Abdelkader Hachlaf | MAR | 8:19,49 | Q |
| 4 | Reuben Kosgei | KEN | 8:20,63 | Q |
| 5 | Steve Slattery | USA | 8:22,32 | |
| 6 | Tewodros Shiferaw | ETH | 8:23,41 | |
| 7 | Radoslaw Poplawski | POL | 8:24,34 | |
| 8 | Vadym Slobodenyuk | UKR | 8:28,64 | |
| 9 | Filmon Ghirmai | GER | 8:28,89 | |
| 10 | Pavel Potapovich | RUS | 8:38,63 | |
| 11 | Alexander Motone | RSA | 9:05,45 | |
| Günther Weidlinger | AUT | DNF |