| 1 | Deutschland | GER | 3:01,26 | Q | |
| (Karsten Just , Rico Lieder, | |||||
| Olaf Hense, Thomas Schönlebe) | |||||
| 2 | Bulgarien | BUL | 3:01,61 | Q | NR |
| (Stanislav Georgiev, Tsvetoslav Stankulov, | |||||
| Kiril Raykov, Anton Ivanov) | |||||
| 3 | Jamaika | JAM | 3:01,70 | q | |
| (Patrick O'Connor, Dennis Blake, | |||||
| Danny McFarlane, Gregory Haughton) | |||||
| 4 | Großbritannien | GBR | 3:02,15 | ||
| (Du'aine Ladejo, Guy Bullock, | |||||
| Wayne McDonald, Ade Mafe) | |||||
| 5 | Neuseeland | NZL | 3:05,84 | NR | |
| (Shaun Farrell, Nick Cowan, | |||||
| Darren Dale, Mark Keddell) | |||||
| 6 | Thailand | THA | 3:08,60 | ||
| (Chanond Keanchan, Sakorn Tongtip, | |||||
| Wirwat Poomipak, Yutthana Tonglek) |
| 1 | USA | USA | 2:58,72 | Q | |
| (Andrew Valmon, Antonio Pettigrew, | |||||
| Derek Mills, Michael Johnson) | |||||
| 2 | Frankreich | FRA | 3:01,70 | Q | |
| (Jacques Farraudiére, Pierre-Marie Hilaire, | |||||
| Olivier Noirot, Jean-Louis Rapnouil) | |||||
| 3 | Japan | JPN | 3:02,43 | ||
| (Masayoshi Kan, Shunji Karube, | |||||
| Yoshihiko Saito, Tomonari Ono) | |||||
| 4 | Algerien | ALG | 3:03,63 | NR | |
| (Amar Hacini, Ismail Mariche, | |||||
| Kamel Talhaodi, Sadek Boumendil) | |||||
| 5 | Mexiko | MEX | 3:08,37 | ||
| (Raymundo Escalante, Juan Vallin, | |||||
| Josue Morales, Luis Karin Toledo) | |||||
| Trinidad & Tobago | TRI | DNS |
| 1 | Kenia | KEN | 3:00,82 | Q |
| (Abednego Matilu, Simon Kemboi, | ||||
| Samson Kitur, Kennedy Ochieng) | ||||
| 2 | Kuba | CUB | 3:01,36 | Q |
| (Lazaro Martínez, Hector Herrera, | ||||
| Norberto Téllez, Roberto Hernández) | ||||
| 3 | Rußland | RUS | 3:01,51 | q |
| (Dmitriy Kliger, Dmitriy Kosov, | ||||
| Innokentiy Zharov, Dmitriy Golovastov) | ||||
| 4 | Italien | ITA | 3:01,85 | |
| (Andrea Nuti, Andrea Montanari, | ||||
| Alessandro Aimar, Marco Vaccari) | ||||
| 5 | Nigeria | NGR | 3:02,64 | |
| (Hassan Bosso, Emmanuel Okoli, | ||||
| Victor Omagbemi, Sunday Bada) | ||||
| Uganda | UGA | DNS |