| 1 | USA | USA | 3:26,82 | Q |
| (Roberta Belle, Easter Gabriel, | ||||
| Rosalyn Bryant, Denean Howard-Hill) | ||||
| 2 | Kanada | CAN | 3:27,21 | Q |
| (Charmaine Crooks, Jillian Richardson, | ||||
| Molly Killingbeck, Marita Payne-Wiggins) | ||||
| 3 | CSSR | TCH | 3:27,60 | Q |
| (Milena Matejkovicova-Strnadova, Zuzana Moravcikova, | ||||
| Tatána Kocembová, Jarmila Kratochvílová) | ||||
| 4 | BRD | FRG | 3:29,70 | q |
| (Rita Daimer, Ute Thimm, | ||||
| Gisela Gottwald, Gaby Bussmann) | ||||
| 5 | Rumänien | ROM | 3:30,96 | q |
| (Iulia Radu, Daniela Matei, | ||||
| Cristieana Cojocaru-Matei, Elena Lina) |
| 1 | UdSSR | URS | 3:28,77 | Q |
| (Yelena Didilenko-Korban, Marina Ivanova-Kharlamova, | ||||
| Irina Baskakova, Mariya Kulchunova-Pinigina) | ||||
| 2 | DDR | GDR | 3:29,05 | Q |
| (Kerstin Walther, Undine Bremer, | ||||
| Ellen Neumann-Fiedler, Sabine Busch) | ||||
| 3 | Bulgarien | BUL | 3:31,11 | Q |
| (Svobodka Damyanova, Rositsa Stamenova, | ||||
| Katya Ilieva, Galina Penkova) | ||||
| 4 | Jamaika | JAM | 3:34,17 | |
| (Cathy Rattray-Williams, Ovrill Dwyer-Brown, | ||||
| Jacqueline Pusey, Grace Jackson) | ||||
| 5 | Puerto Rico | PUR | 3:42,79 | |
| (Madeline De Jesus, Vilma Paris, | ||||
| Margaret De Jesus, Nilsa Paris) |