Heats

First 2 from each heat (Q) and the next 4 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Gert Kilbert	Switzerland	1:49.65	Q
2	3	Tony Morrell	Great Britain	1:49.68	Q
3	3	Colomán Trabado	Spain	1:49.72	q
4	3	Zoltán Sári	Hungary	1:50.37	q
5	4	David Sharpe	Great Britain	1:50.83	Q
6	4	Slobodan Popović	Yugoslavia	1:51.02	Q
7	4	Andrey Sudnik	Soviet Union	1:51.13	q
8	4	Joachim Heydgen	West Germany	1:51.14	q
9	4	Ari Suhonen	Finland	1:51.19
10	1	Rob Druppers	Netherlands	1:53.12	Q
11	1	Ikem Billy	Great Britain	1:53.20	Q
12	1	István Szalai	Hungary	1:53.36
13	1	José Arconada	Spain	1:53.49
14	1	Álvaro Silva	Portugal	1:54.66
15	2	Petru Drăgoescu	Romania	2:00.16	Q
16	2	Tony Ernst	Belgium	2:00.61	Q
17	2	Tomás de Teresa	Spain	2:00.65
18	2	Predrag Melnjak	Yugoslavia	2:01.22
	1	Herwig Tavernaro	Austria	DNF

Semifinals

First 3 from each semifinal qualified directly (Q) for the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Tony Morrell	Great Britain	1:48.23	Q
2	1	Rob Druppers	Netherlands	1:48.28	Q
3	2	Slobodan Popović	Yugoslavia	1:48.52	Q
4	1	Gert Kilbert	Switzerland	1:48.65	Q
5	1	David Sharpe	Great Britain	1:48.66	Q
6	2	Ikem Billy	Great Britain	1:48.70	Q
7	2	Andrey Sudnik	Soviet Union	1:48.72
8	1	Joachim Heydgen	West Germany	1:48.76
9	2	Colomán Trabado	Spain	1:49.08
10	2	Petru Drăgoescu	Romania	1:49.24
11	1	Zoltán Sári	Hungary	1:51.66
12	1	Tony Ernst	Belgium	1:51.82

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	David Sharpe	Great Britain	1:49.17
	Rob Druppers	Netherlands	1:49.45
	Gert Kilbert	Switzerland	1:49.46
4	Tony Morrell	Great Britain	1:49.89
5	Slobodan Popović	Yugoslavia	1:50.02
6	Ikem Billy	Great Britain	1:50.36