The top three places remained static, with Great Britain leading, West Germany second, and Austria third at each quarter mark.

The other boats had more changes in position, with Norway starting in fourth before falling back to sixth.

East Germany briefly fell to third at the 1500 metre mark but regained the lead over the last quarter-race.

[3] Norway made the only personnel change of the event, swapping Audun Hadler-Olsen in for Ole Andreassen.

The Soviet Union came to a relatively easy third-place finish, with Argentina and Japan never seriously threatening to advance.

[4] Austria and Finland were not competitive from the start, essentially making this a four-way race for three advancement spots.

Yugoslavia led at the 500 metre mark before Romania took control and ran away with the top spot.

[4] Great Britain took an early, significant lead—over 2.3 seconds by 500 metres—and increased it through the first three-quarters of the race before coasting to the win.

The United States was in the second position at the halfway and three-quarter marks, but could not hold the pace and was passed by Belgium, East Germany, and France in the final quarter.

Those three had similar splits in the last 500 metres, which kept France from advancing as the French team finished fourth.

The United States and Brazil were third and fourth, respectively, at each quarter-mark; the Brazilians did have to survive a late press from Finland.

The three heat winners maintained the top three positions throughout, with Great Britain in first, Romania in second, and Yugoslavia in third.

East Germany and the Soviet Union were also fairly well locked into the fifth and sixth places, respectively, at halfway.