| 1 | GDR | GDR | 42,96 | Q | |
| (Silke Gladisch-Möller, Cornelia Riefstahl-Oschkenat, | |||||
| Kerstin Behrendt, Marlies Oelsner-Göhr) | |||||
| 2 | Kanada | CAN | 43,30 | Q | |
| (Angela,Bailey Angela Phipps, | |||||
| Angella Taylor-Issajenko, Keturah Anderson) | |||||
| 3 | FRG | FRG | 43,32 | Q | |
| (Silke-Beate Knoll, Ulrike Sarvari, | |||||
| Andrea Thomas, Ute Thimm) | |||||
| 4 | Bulgarien | BUL | 43,50 | Q | |
| (Ginka Zagorcheva, Anelia Nuneva, | |||||
| Nadezhda Georgieva, Valya Demireva) | |||||
| 5 | Nigeria | NGR | 43,95 | ||
| (Beatrice Utondu, Tina Iheagwam, | |||||
| Mary Onyali, Falilat Ogunkoya) | |||||
| 6 | Ghana | GHA | 44,28 | NR | |
| (Mercy Addy, Diana Yankey, | |||||
| Cynthia Quartey, Martha Appiah) | |||||
| Brasilien | BRA | DNS | |||
| (Ines Ribeiro, Claudilea Dos Santos, | |||||
| Sheila De Oliveira, Cleide Amaral) |
| 1 | USA | USA | 41,96 | Q |
| (Alice Brown, Diane Williams, | ||||
| Florence Griffith-Joyner, Pam Marshall) | ||||
| 2 | UdSSR | URS | 42,47 | Q |
| (Irina Slyusar, Natalya Pomoshchnikova-Voronova, | ||||
| Natalya German, Olga Antonova) | ||||
| 3 | Kuba | CUB | 43,53 | Q |
| (Eusebia Riquelme, Aliuska López, | ||||
| Susana Armenteros, Liliana Allen) | ||||
| 4 | Frankreich | FRA | 43,59 | Q |
| (Françoise Leroux, Marie-Christine Cazier-Ballo, | ||||
| Laurence Bily, Muriel Leroy) | ||||
| 5 | Großbritannien | GBR | 44,21 | |
| (Eleanor Cohen, Joan Baptiste, | ||||
| Wendy Hoyte, Paula Dunn-Thomas) | ||||
| 6 | Italien | ITA | 44,49 | |
| (Rita Angotzi, Patrizia Lombardo, | ||||
| Annarita Balzani, Marisa Masullo) | ||||
| 7 | Indien | IND | 46,32 | |
| (Ashwini Nachappa, Vandana Shanbag, | ||||
| Sany Joseph, Vandana Rao) |