| Date | 5 September 1972 — 9:00 | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Olympia-Regattastrecke, Oberschleißheim, München | |
| Format | Top 3 in each heat advanced to the final. | |
| Pos | Lane | Competitor | NOC | Time | 500 m | 500-1,000 m | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Tamás Wichmann |  HUN | 4:29.01 | 2:11.47 (1) | 2:17.54 (1) | ||
| 2 | 4 | Boris Lyubenov |  BUL | 4:32.03 | 2:12.39 (4) | 2:19.64 (2) | ||
| 3 | 2 | Jerzy Opara |  POL | 4:32.39 | 2:12.19 (3) | 2:20.20 (3) | ||
| 4 | 7 | Roberto Altamirano |  MEX | 4:34.52 | 2:13.41 (5) | 2:21.11 (4) | ||
| 5 | 3 | András Törő |  USA | 4:39.92 | 2:17.38 (7) | 2:22.54 (5) | ||
| 6 | 6 | Jiří Čtvrtečka |  TCH | 4:54.56 | 2:11.90 (2) | 2:42.66 (7) | ||
| 7 | 5 | John Wood |  CAN | 4:56.70 | 2:15.38 (6) | 2:41.32 (6) |
| Pos | Lane | Competitor | NOC | Time | 500 m | 500-1,000 m | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Detlef Lewe |  FRG | 4:31.79 | 2:13.46 (1) | 2:18.33 (1) | ||
| 2 | 6 | Vasily Yurchenko |  URS | 4:33.34 | 2:14.70 (2) | 2:18.64 (2) | ||
| 3 | 5 | Dirk Weise |  GDR | 4:41.04 | 2:15.37 (3) | 2:25.67 (3) | ||
| 4 | 2 | Jean-François Millot |  FRA | 4:52.30 | 2:23.18 (4) | 2:29.12 (4) | ||
| 5 | 1 | Tetsumasa Yamaguchi |  JPN | 4:53.66 | 2:23.42 (5) | 2:30.24 (5) | ||
| 6 | 4 | Ivan Patzaichin |  ROU | 6:34.65 | – (–) | – (–) |
