Semi 1 | | time | | gap | L | Y | Rk | 1. Bill Mulliken | United States | 2:37.2 | | | 4 | 21 | 1. | 2. Yoshihiko Osaki | Japan | 2:38.2 | | +1.0s | 5 | 21 | 2. | 3. Egon Henninger | UT Germany | 2:38.5 | | +1.3s | 8 | 20 | 3. | 4. Roberto Lazzari | Italy | 2:40.3 | | +3.1s | 2 | 22 | 7. | 5. Arkadiy Golovchenko | Soviet Union | 2:40.9 | | +3.7s | 3 | 24 | 9. | 6. Mihai Mitrofan | Romania | 2:41.6 | | +4.4s | 1 | 29 | 11. | 7. Christopher Walkden | Great Britain | 2:41.7 | | +4.5s | 7 | 22 | 12. | 8. Djordje Perisic | Yugoslavia | 2:44.2 | | +7.0s | 6 | 19 | 16. |
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Semi 2 | | time | | gap | L | Y | Rk | 1. Terry Gathercole | Australia | 2:39.1 | | +1.9s | 7 | 24 | 4. | 2. Wieger Mensonides | Netherlands | 2:39.3 | | +2.1s | 4 | 22 | 5. | 3. Paul Hait | United States | 2:39.6 | | +2.4s | 3 | 20 | 6. | 4. Andrzej Klopotowski | Poland | 2:40.8 | NR | +3.6s | 2 | 25 | 8. | 5. Georgy Prokopenko | Soviet Union | 2:41.0 | | +3.8s | 5 | 23 | 10. | 6. Gilbert Desmit | Belgium | 2:41.8 | | +4.6s | 8 | 22 | 13. | 7. Isao Masuda | Japan | 2:42.3 | | +5.1s | 6 | 22 | 14. | 8. Gyorgy Kunsagi | Hungary | 2:42.4 | | +5.2s | 1 | 26 | 15. |
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