| Men 1500m Freestyle Swimming V World Championship 1986 Madrid, Spain - Saturday, 23rd August - Gold Medal: Rainer Henkel, West Germany | 
| Final |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | pts |  | 1. Rainer Henkel |   West Germany | 15:05.31 |   |   | 5 | 22 | 927  |  | 2. Stefano Battistelli |   Italy | 15:14.80 |   | +9.49s | 1 | 16 | 899  |  | 3. Daniel Jorgensen |   United States | 15:16.23 |   | +10.92s | 6 | 18 | 894  |  | 4. Vladimir Salnikov |   Soviet Union | 15:18.94 |   | +13.63s | 7 | 26 | 886  |  | 5. Uwe Dassler |   East Germany | 15:21.88 |   | +16.57s | 4 | 19 | 878  |  | 6. Darjan Petric |   Yugoslavia | 15:22.35 |   | +17.04s | 2 | 21 | 877  |  | 7. Eduard Petrov |   Soviet Union | 15:25.55 |   | +20.24s | 3 | 23 | 868  |  | 8. Franck Iacono |   France | 15:26.41 |   | +21.10s | 8 | 20 | 965  |   
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| World Record: Vladimir Salnikov, Soviet Union 14:54.76 Moskva, Soviet Union 22nd February 1983 |   
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 Heats - Saturday, 23rd August |  | Best 8 times advanced to Final.  |   
| Heat 5 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 2. Rainer Henkel |   West Germany | 15:21.39 |   | +2.08s | - | 22 | 1.  |  | 11.Stefan Pfeiffer |   West Germany | 15:33.02 |   | +13.71s | - | 20 | 2.  |  | 22.Walter Kalaus |   Hungary | 16:09.14 |   | +49.83s | - | 16 | 3.  |  | 24.Eduardo De Poll |   Brazil | 16:12.96 |   | +53.65s | - |   | 4.  |  | 25.Alejandro Lecot |   Argentina | 16:16.29 |   | +56.98s | - | 23 | 5.  |  | 27.Xuegang Li |   China | 16:24.18 |   | +1:04.87 | - |   | 6.  |   
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| Heat 4 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 3. Eduard Petrov |   Soviet Union | 15:21.61 |   | +2.30s | - | 23 | 1. |  | 4. Daniel Jorgensen |   United States | 15:24.01 |   | +4.70s | - | 18 | 2.  |  | 6. Vladimir Salnikov |   Soviet Union | 15:25.04 |   | +5.73s | - | 26 | 3.  |  | 13.Alessandro Ciucci |   Italy | 15:36.26 |   | +16.95s | - |   | 4.  |  | 28.Segev Porat |   Israel | 16:24.39 |   | +1:05.08 | - | - | 5.  |  | 29.Shigeo Ogata |   Japan | 16:24.44 |   | +1:05.13 | - | 17 | 6.  |  | 30.Luiz Anchieta |   Brazil | 16:30.68 |   | +1:11.37 | - | - | 7.  |   
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| Heat 3 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 9. Jason Plummer |   Australia | 15:30.12 |   | +10.81s | - | 17 | 1.  |  | 16.Tomasz Gavronski |   Poland | 15:45.54 |   | +26.23s | - |   | 2.  |  | 17.Christopher Chalmers |   Canada | 15:52.48 |   | +33.17s | - | 18 | 3.  |  | 18.Javier Torrallardona |   Spain | 15:59.63 |   | +40.32s | - |   | 4.  |  | 19.Ondrej Bures |   Czechoslovakia | 16:01.31 |   | +42.00s | - | 19 | 5.  |  | 20.Harry Taylor |   Canada | 16:01.37 |   | +42.06s | - | 18 | 6.  |  | 31.Wu-Ming Hsun |   Chinese Taipei | 16:49.08 |   | +1:29.77 | - |   | 7.  |   
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| Heat 2 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 7. Stefano Battistelli |   Italy | 15:28.85 |   | +9.54s | - | 16 | 1.  |  | 8. Franck Iacono |   France | 15:29.55 |   | +10.24s | - | 20 | 2.  |  | 14.Artur Wojdat |   Poland | 15:44.15 |   | +24.84s | - | 18 | 3.  |  | 21.Luis I Morell |   Puerto Rico | 16:02.36 |   | +43.05s | - |   | 5.  |  | 32.Jaime Lipszyc |   Costa Rica | 17:06.03 |   | +1:46.72 | - |   | 6.  |   
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| Heat 1 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 1. Uwe Dassler |   East Germany | 15:19.31 |   |   | - | 19 | 1.  |  | 5. Darjan Petric |   Yugoslavia | 15:24.50 |   | +5.19s | - | 21 | 2.  |  | 10.Matt Cetlinski |   United States | 15:30.92 |   | +11.61s | - | 21 | 3.  |  | 12.Yann Cardineau |   France | 15:33.10 |   | +13.79s | - |   | 4.  |  | 23.Juan Escalas |   Spain | 16:09.81 |   | +50.50s | - | 22 | 5.  |  | 26.Pedro Carrio |   Cuba | 16:16.74 |   | +57.43s | - |   | 6.  |   
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