| Men 400m Freestyle Swimming V World Championship 1986 Madrid, Spain - Wedensday, 20th August - Gold Medal: Rainer Henkel, West Germany | 
| Final |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | pts |  | Final |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | pts |  | 1. Rainer Henkel |   West Germany | 3:50.05 | CR |   | 4 | 22 | 907 |  | 2. Uwe Dassler |   East Germany | 3:51.26 |   | +1.21s | 7 | 19 | 893 |  | 3. Daniel Jorgensen |   United States | 3:51.33 |   | +1.28s | 3 | 18 | 892 |  | 4. Kevin Boyd |   Great Britain | 3:51.93 |   | +1.88s | 5 | 20 | 885 |  | 5. Vladimir Salnikov |   Soviet Union | 3:52.07 |   | +2.02s | 6 | 26 | 883 |  | 6. Anders Holmertz |   Sweden | 3:53.83 |   | +3.78s | 8 | 17 | 864 |  | 7. Franck Iacono |   France | 3:54.86 |   | +4.81s | 2 | 20 | 852 |  | 8. Sven Lodziewski |   East Germany | 3:56.06 |   | +6.01s | 1 | 21 | 839 |   
 | 
 |  
| World Record: Michael Gross, West Germany 3:47.80 Remsheid, West Germany 27th June 1985 |   
| Final |   | time |   | gap | L | ag |  | Final B |   | time |   | gap | L | ag |  | 9. Matt Cetlinski |   United States | 3:51.90 |   |   | 3 | 21 |  | 10.Artur Wojdat |   Poland | 3:54.77 |   | +2.87s | 5 | 18 |  | 11.Jason Plummer |   Australia | 3:55.23 |   | +3.33s | 1 | 17 |  | 12.Juan Carlos Vallejo |   Spain | 3:55.56 |   | +3.66s | 4 | 23 |  | 13.Carlos Scanavino |   Uruguay | 3:56.13 |   | +4.23s | 2 | 22 |  | 14.Darjan Petric |   Yugoslavia | 3:56.73 |   | +4.83s | 7 | 21 |  | 15.Alessandro Ciucci |   Italy | 3:57.74 |   | +5.84s | 8 | - |  | 16.Thomas Fahrner |   West Germany | 4:01.41 |   | +9.51s | 6 | 23 |   
 | 
 |  
 | 
 | 
      
 | 
|
Heats - Wednesday, 20th August | 
| Best 8 times advanced to Final. Next 8 to Final B. | 
| Heat 6 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 1. Rainer Henkel |   West Germany | 3:52.98 |   |   | - | 22 | 1.  |  | 4. Vladimir Salnikov |   Soviet Union | 3:53.62 |   | +0.64s | - | 26 | 2.  |  | 5. Franck Iacono |   France | 3:53.76 |   | +0.78s | - | 20 | 3.  |  | 13.Carlos Scanavino |   Uruguay | 3:55.99 |   | +3.01s | - | 22 | 4.  |  | 30.Segev Porat |   Israel | 4:06.64 |   | +13.66s | - |   | 5.  |  | -. Valentin Kochanov |   Bulgaria | DNS |   |   | - |   |   |  | -. Magnus Olafsson |   Iceland | DNS |   |   | - |   |   |   
 | 
 | 
| Heat 5 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 3. Daniel Jorgensen |   United States | 3:53.61 |   | +0.63s | - | 18 | 1.  |  | 9. Juan Carlos Vallejo |   Spain | 3:55.39 |   | +2.41s | - | 23 | 2.  |  | 22.Duncan Armstrong |   Australia | 4:01.24 |   | +8.26s | - | 18 | 3.  |  | 23.Scott Flowers |   Canada | 4:01.35 |   | +8.37s | - |   | 4.  |  | 27.Eduardo De Poll |   Brazil | 4:04.86 |   | +11.88s | - |   | 5.  |  | 29.Massimo Trevisan |   Italy | 4:06.26 |   | +13.28s | - | 18 | 6.  |  | 34.Claus Hansen |   Denmark | 4:09.77 |   | +16.79s | - |   | 7.  |  | 42.Wu-Ming Hsun |   Chinese Taipei | 4:18.54 |   | +25.56s | - |   | 8.  |   
 | 
| Heat 4 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 6. Uwe Dassler |   East Germany | 3:54.72 |   | +1.74s | - | 19 | 1.  |  | 16.Alessandro Ciucci |   Italy | 3:57.60 |   | +4.62s | - |   | 2.  |  | 17.Eduard Petrov |   Soviet Union | 3:58.15 |   | +5.17s | - | 23 | 3.  |  | 18.Zoltan Szilagyi |   Hungary | 3:59.19 |   | +6.21s | - | 19 | 4.  |  | 25.Luiz Anchieta |   Brazil | 4:04.25 |   | +11.27s | - |   | 5.  |  | 32.Carlos Romo |   Mexico | 4:07.41 |   | +14.43s | - | 19 | 6.  |  | 40.Gokhan Attaroglu |   Turkey | 4:17.49 |   | +24.51s | - | 21 | 7.  |  | 44.Jaime Lipszyc |   Costa Rica | 4:22.60 |   | +29.62s | - |   | 8. |   
 | 
 | 
| Heat 3 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 8. Anders Holmertz |   Sweden | 3:55.14 |   | +2.16s | - | 17 | 1.  |  | 10.Artur Wojdat |   Poland | 3:55.75 |   | +2.77s | - | 18 | 2.  |  | 11.Matt Cetlinski |   United States | 3:55.83 |   | +2.85s | - | 21 | 3.  |  | 28.Jose Raul Lopez |   Cuba | 4:05.95 |   | +12.97s | - | 20 | 4.  |  | 36.Shigeo Ogata |   Japan | 4:11.29 |   | +18.31s | - | 17 | 5.  |  | 38.Mark Millar |   Ireland | 4:12.92 |   | +19.94s | - |   | 6.  |  | -. Stefan Persson |   Sweden | DNS |   |   | - |   |   |  | -. Juan Tavares |   Dominicana | DNS |   |   | - |   |   |   
 | 
| Heat 2 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 7. Sven Lodziewski |   East Germany | 3:54.79 |   | +1.81s | - | 21 | 1.  |  | 14.Darjan Petric |   Yugoslavia | 3:56.94 |   | +3.96s | - | 21 | 2.  |  | 19.Christopher Bowie |   Canada | 3:59.33 |   | +6.35s | - | 19 | 3.  |  | 21.Walter Kalaus |   Hungary | 4:00.68 |   | +7.70s | - | 16 | 4.  |  | 31.Tomasz Gavronski |   Poland | 4:06.70 |   | +13.72s | - |   | 5.  |  | 35.Franki Onay |   Cuba | 4:10.05 |   | +17.07s | - |   | 6.  |  | 37.Rui Borges |   Portugal | 4:11.64 |   | +18.66s | - | 19 | 7.  |  | 43.Moustafa Ahmed |   Egypt | 4:20.93 |   | +27.95s | - | 2 | 8.  |   
 | 
 | 
| Heat 1 |   | time |   | gap | L | ag | Rk |  | 2. Kevin Boyd |   Great Britain | 3:53.10 |   | +0.12s | - | 20 | 1.  |  | 12.Thomas Fahrner |   West Germany | 3:55.85 |   | +2.87s | - | 23 | 2.  |  | 15.Jason Plummer |   Australia | 3:57.19 |   | +4.21s | - | 17 | 3.  |  | 20.John Anthony Day |   Great Britain | 3:59.47 |   | +6.49s | - | 21 | 4.  |  | 24.Juan Escalas |   Spain | 4:01.52 |   | +8.54s | - | 22 | 5.  |  | 26.Luis I Morell |   Puerto Rico | 4:04.33 |   | +11.35s | - |   | 6.  |  | 39.Xuegang Li |   China | 4:14.37 |   | +21.39s | - |   | 7.  |  | 41.Richard Patino |   Colombia | 4:18.41 |   | +25.43s | - |   | 8.  |   
 |