Heats

First 2 from each heat (Q) qualified directly for the semifinals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Nikolay Chernetskiy	Soviet Union	47.20	Q
2	2	Ryszard Podlas	Poland	47.80	Q
3	3	Alfonso Di Guida	Italy	47.96	Q
4	3	Karel Kolář	Czechoslovakia	47.96	Q
5	3	Narzis Popov	Bulgaria	48.19
6	2	Eddy De Leeuw	Belgium	48.34
7	4	Pietro Mennea	Italy	48.40	Q
8	4	Željko Knapić	Yugoslavia	48.55	Q
9	1	Nándor Hornyacsek	Hungary	48.64	Q
9	2	Yanko Bratanov	Bulgaria	48.64
11	1	Vasiliy Arkhipenko	Soviet Union	48.79	Q
12	1	Giovanni Bongiorni	Italy	48.79
13	4	Pavel Pavlov	Bulgaria	48.83

Semifinals

First 2 from each heat (Q) qualified directly for the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Ryszard Podlas	Poland	47.08	Q
2	2	Pietro Mennea	Italy	47.16	Q
3	1	Nikolay Chernetskiy	Soviet Union	47.29	Q
4	1	Željko Knapić	Yugoslavia	47.61	Q
5	2	Vasiliy Arkhipenko	Soviet Union	47.71
6	1	Alfonso Di Guida	Italy	47.86
7	1	Nándor Hornyacsek	Hungary	48.06
8	2	Karel Kolář	Czechoslovakia	48.62

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Pietro Mennea	Italy	46.51
	Ryszard Podlas	Poland	46.55
	Nikolay Chernetskiy	Soviet Union	46.72
4	Željko Knapić	Yugoslavia	47.83