| 1 | Jamaika | JAM | 42,63 | Q | AR |
| (Dahlia Duhaney, Juliet Cuthbert, | |||||
| Beverly McDonald, Merlene Frazer) | |||||
| 2 | Nigeria | NGR | 42,72 | Q | NR |
| (Beatrice Utondu, Rufina Ubah, | |||||
| Christy Opara-Thompson, Mary Onyali) | |||||
| 3 | UdSSR | URS | 42,78 | Q | |
| (Natalya Kovtun, Galina Malchugina, | |||||
| Yelena Vinogradova, Irina Privalova) | |||||
| 4 | Frankreich | FRA | 43,05 | q | |
| (Laurence Bily, Maguy Nestoret, | |||||
| Valerie Jean-Charles, Marie-José Pérec) | |||||
| 5 | Australien | AUS | 43,34 | q | |
| (Monique Dunstan, Kathy Sambell, | |||||
| Melissa Moore, Kerry Johnson) | |||||
| 6 | Großbritannien | GBR | 43,43 | ||
| (Stephanie Douglas, Beverly Kinch, | |||||
| Simmone Jacobs, Paula Dunn-Thomas) | |||||
| 7 | Bulgarien | BUL | 44,17 | ||
| (Petya Pendareva, Tsvetanka Ilieva, | |||||
| Nadezhda Georgieva, Valya Demireva) |
| 1 | Deutschland | GER | 41,91 | Q | |
| (Grit Breuer, Katrin Krabbe, | |||||
| Sabine Richter, Heike Daute-Drechsler) | |||||
| 2 | Kuba | CUB | 43,31 | Q | NR |
| (Eusebia Riquelme, Aliuska López, | |||||
| Julia Duporty, Liliana Allen) | |||||
| 3 | Italien | ITA | 43,71 | Q | |
| (Marisa Masullo, Donatella Dal Bianco, | |||||
| Daniela Ferrian, Rossella Tarolo) | |||||
| 4 | Finnland | FIN | 43,73 | NR | |
| (Marja Tennivaara-Salmela, Sisko Markkanen-Hanhijoki, | |||||
| Sanna Hernesniemi-Kyllönen, Minna Painilainen) | |||||
| 5 | Spanien | ESP | 44,08 | NR | |
| (Patricia Morales, Cristina Castro, | |||||
| Maria del Carmen Garcia Campero, Sandra Myers) | |||||
| 6 | Japan | JPN | 44,85 | NR | |
| (Noriko Masaki, Kazue Kakinuma, | |||||
| Toshie Iwamoto-Kitada, Ayako Nomura) | |||||
| USA | USA | DNF | |||
| (Carlette Guidry-White, Esther Jones, | |||||
| Dannette Young-Stone, Evelyn Ashford) |