| Date | 1 September 1972 |
|---|---|
| Location | Olympiastadion, Olympiapark, München |
| Pos | Number | Competitor | NOC | Time (Automatic) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 213 | Pekka Päivärinta |  FIN | 8:28.95 | |||
| 2 | 930 | Romualdas Bitė |  URS | 8:30.2 | |||
| 3 | 271 | Jean-Paul Villain |  FRA | 8:30.4 | |||
| 4 | 874 | Josef Horčic |  TCH | 8:30.6 | |||
| 5 | 846 | Anders Gärderud |  SWE | 8:30.8 | |||
| 6 | 405 | Willi Wagner |  FRG | 8:34.0 | |||
| 7 | 64 | Paul Thys |  BEL | 8:35.0 | |||
| 8 | 275 | John Bicourt |  GBR | 8:38.8 | |||
| 9 | 974 | Doug Brown |  USA | 8:41.2 | |||
| 10 | 431 | Panagiotis Nakopoulos |  GRE | 8:48.4 | |||
| 11 | 188 | Yohannes Mohamed |  ETH | 8:52.6 | |||
| 12 | 421 | Robert Hackman |  GHA | 8:57.6 |
