Heats

First 3 from each heat (Q) and the next 1 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Ángel Heras	Spain	47.33	Q
2	2	Sergey Lovachov	Soviet Union	47.41	Q
3	1	Sándor Újhelyi	Hungary	47.51	Q
4	3	Ainsley Bennett	Great Britain	47.68	Q
5	1	Bozhidar Konstantinov	Bulgaria	47.70	Q
6	3	Yevgeniy Lomtyev	Soviet Union	47.73	Q
7	3	Dušan Malovec	Czechoslovakia	47.77	Q
8	1	Jean-Jacques Février	France	47.80	q
9	1	István Takács	Hungary	48.00
10	2	Toma Tomov	Bulgaria	48.04	Q
11	1	Stefano Malinverni	Italy	48.06
12	2	Christoph Trappe	West Germany	48.17	Q
13	2	Andreas Kaufmann	Switzerland	48.34
14	2	Gusztáv Menczer	Hungary	48.54

Semifinals

First 2 from each semifinal (Q) and next 1 fastest (q) qualified for the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Ainsley Bennett	Great Britain	46.87	Q
2	1	Yevgeniy Lomtyev	Soviet Union	46.93	Q
3	1	Ángel Heras	Spain	47.08	q
4	1	Toma Tomov	Bulgaria	47.35
5	1	Jean-Jacques Février	France	47.84
6	2	Christoph Trappe	West Germany	47.90	Q
7	2	Dušan Malovec	Czechoslovakia	47.94	Q
8	2	Bozhidar Konstantinov	Bulgaria	48.25
	2	Sergey Lovachov	Soviet Union	DNS
	2	Sándor Újhelyi	Hungary	DNS

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Yevgeniy Lomtyev	Soviet Union	46.20	PB
	Ainsley Bennett	Great Britain	46.43
	Ángel Heras	Spain	46.57
4	Christoph Trappe	West Germany	46.62
5	Dušan Malovec	Czechoslovakia	46.65	NR