| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|
100 m (Wind: +0.5 m/s) | Linford Christie
Great Britain | 10.18 | Daniel Sangouma
France | 10.20 | Steffen Bringmann
Germany | 10.42 |
200 m (Wind: -1.6 m/s) | Jean-Charles Trouabal
France | 20.60 | John Regis
Great Britain | 20.73 | Stefano Tilli
Italy | 20.79 |
| 400 m | Roger Black
Great Britain | 44.91 CR | Olivier Noirot
France | 45.18 | Tamás Molnár
Hungary | 45.78 |
| 800 m | Tom McKean
Great Britain | 1:45.60 | Andrey Sudnik
Soviet Union | 1:46.35 | Frédéric Cornette
France | 1:46.63 |
| 1500 m | Peter Elliott
Great Britain | 3:43.39 | Jens-Peter Herold
France | 3:43.47 | Gennaro Di Napoli
Italy | 3:44.75 |
| 5000 m | Salvatore Antibo
Italy | 13:21.68 CR | Gary Staines
Great Britain | 13:35.08 | Pascal Thiébaut
France | 13:45.61 |
| 10,000 m | Eamonn Martin
Great Britain | 28:00.53 | Francesco Panetta
Italy | 28:03.10 | Stéphane Franke
Germany | 28:04.41 |
| 3000 m steeplechase | Alessandro Lambruschini
Italy | 8:29.62 | Ivan Konovalov
Soviet Union | 8:30.37 | Béla Vágó
Hungary | 8:30.60 |
110 m hurdles (Wind: -0.9 m/s) | Colin Jackson
Great Britain | 13.31 CR | Florian Schwarthoff
Germany | 13.43 | Philippe Tourret
France | 13.63 |
| 400 m hurdles | Kriss Akabusi
Great Britain | 48.39 | Stéphane Caristan
France | 49.43 | Fabrizio Mori
Italy | 49.76 |
| 4 × 100 m | France Gilles Quénéhervé Daniel Sangouma Jean-Charles Trouabal Bruno Marie-Rose | 38.67 | Soviet Union Yuriy Yazynin Andrey Fedoriv Aleksandr Goremykin Vitaliy Savin | 38.87 | Italy Giorgio Marras Carlo Simionato Ezio Madonia Stefano Tilli | 38.89 |
| 4 × 400 m | Great Britain Paul Sanders Kriss Akabusi Brian Whittle Roger Black | 3:00.58 | Soviet Union Dmitriy Golovastov Dmitriy Kliger Aleksey Podshibyakin Vjaceslavs Kocherjagins | 3:01.80 | Italy Marco Vaccari Fabio Grossi Alessandro Aimar Andrea Nuti | 3:02.32 |
| High jump | Dalton Grant
Great Britain | 2.30 | Igor Paklin
Soviet Union | 2.28 | Joël Vincent
France | 2.22 |
| Pole vault | Grigoriy Yegorov
Soviet Union | 5.60 | Gianni Iapichino
Italy | 5.50 | István Bagyula
Hungary | 5.50 |
| Long jump | Dietmar Haaf
Germany | 8.30w | Robert Emmiyan
Soviet Union | 8.01 | Giovanni Evangelisti
Italy | 7.76 |
| Triple jump | Ralf Jaros
Germany | 17.66 CR | Jan Cado
Czechoslovakia | 16.94 | Georges Sainte-Rose
France | 16.93 |
| Shot put | Ulf Timmermann
Germany | 20.26 | Sergey Smirnov
Soviet Union | 19.91 | Alessandro Andrei
Italy | 19.16 |
| Discus throw | Attila Horváth
Hungary | 65.24 | Jürgen Schult
Germany | 63.24 | Gejza Valent
Czechoslovakia | 62.14 |
| Hammer throw | Igor Astapkovich
Soviet Union | 81.60 | Tibor Gécsek
Hungary | 76.90 | Enrico Sgrulletti
Italy | 76.16 |
| Javelin throw | Jan Železný
Czechoslovakia | 82.84 | Viktor Zaytsev
Soviet Union | 82.68 | Peter Blank
Germany | 82.42 |
WR world record |AR area record |CR championship record |GR games record |NR national record |OR Olympic record |PB personal best |SB season best |WL world leading (in a given season) |