| 1 | Jamaika | JAM | 3:26,22 | Q |
| (Sandie Richards, Ronetta Smith, | ||||
| Michelle Burgher, Allison Beckford) | ||||
| 2 | Großbritannien | GBR | 3:26,44 | Q |
| (Helen Karagounis, Jennifer Meadows, | ||||
| Catherine Murphy, Lee McConnell) | ||||
| 3 | Polen | POL | 3:26,66 | q |
| (Anna Pacholak, Monika Bejnar, | ||||
| Anna Jesien, Grazyna Prokopek) | ||||
| 4 | Griechenland | GRE | 3:33,88 | |
| (Haríklia Boudá, Faní Halkiá, | ||||
| Yeoryía Koumnáki, Hrísoula Goudenoúdi) | ||||
| 5 | Indien | IND | 3:42,25 | |
| (Kalpana Reddy, Geetha Satti , | ||||
| Sagardeep Kaur, Manjit Kaur) | ||||
| Australien | AUS | DNS | ||
| (Lauren Hewitt, Susan Andrews, | ||||
| Tamsyn Lewis, Jana Pittman) |
| 1 | Rußland | RUS | 3:27,97 | Q | |
| (Svetlana Pospelova, Svetlana Goncharenko, | |||||
| Olesya Zykina, Natalya Nazarova) | |||||
| 2 | Kamerun | CMR | 3:29,40 | Q | NR |
| (Mireille Nguimgo, Carole Kaboud Mebam, | |||||
| Delphine Bertille Atangana, Hortense Bewouda) | |||||
| 3 | Frankreich | FRA | 3:30,29 | ||
| (Marie-Louise Bévis , Anita Mormand, | |||||
| Virginie Michanol, Solen Désert ) | |||||
| 4 | Weißrußland | BLR | 3:31,40 | ||
| (Katsiaryna Bobryk, Natalya Sologub, | |||||
| Irina Khlyustova, Svetlana Usovich) | |||||
| 5 | Italien | ITA | 3:32,00 | ||
| (Danielle Perpoli , Monika Niederstatter, | |||||
| Maria Teresa Schutzmann, Virna De Angeli) | |||||
| 6 | Bulgarien | BUL | 3:33,92 | ||
| (Monika Gachevska, Mariana Dimitrova, | |||||
| Ekaterina Maschova, Nedyalka Nedkova) | |||||
| Nigeria | NGR | DNS | |||
| (Olabisi Afolabi, Doris Jacob, | |||||
| Oluyemi Fagbamila, Rosemary Okafor) |
| 1 | USA | USA | 3:24,57 | Q | |
| (Me'Lisa Barber , DeeDee Trotter, | |||||
| Sanya Richards, Jearl Miles Clark) | |||||
| 2 | Deutschland | GER | 3:27,97 | Q | |
| (Claudia Marx, Birgit Rockmeier, | |||||
| Claudia Hoffman, Grit Breuer) | |||||
| 3 | Senegal | SEN | 3:28,37 | q | |
| (Bintou Fall Fatou, Mame Tacko Diouf, | |||||
| Aminata Diouf, Amy Mbacke Thiam) | |||||
| 4 | Ukraine | UKR | 3:29,65 | ||
| (Nataliya Pygyda, Olga Mishchenko, | |||||
| Oleksandra Ryzhkova, Antonina Yefremova) | |||||
| 5 | Mexiko | MEX | 3:29,74 | ||
| (Liliana Allen, Gabriela Medina, | |||||
| Mayra González, Ana Guevara) | |||||
| 6 | Kasachstan | KAZ | 3:31,20 | NR | |
| (Tatyana Roslanova, Natalya Torshina, | |||||
| Olga Tereshkova, Svetlana Bodritskaya) | |||||
| 7 | Israel | ISR | 3:32,99 | NR | |
| (Irina Lenskiy, Svetlana Gnezdilov, | |||||
| Anat Morad, Anna Tkach) |