# 1987 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 4 × 100 metres relay

The 4 × 100 metres relay at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Stadio Olimpico on September 5 and September 6.

## Medals

| Gold: | Silver: | Bronze: |
| United States Lee McRae Lee McNeill Harvey Glance Carl Lewis Dennis Mitchell* | Soviet Union Aleksandr Yevgenyev Viktor Bryzgin Vladimir Muravyov Vladimir Krylov Andrey Fedoriv* | Jamaica John Mair Andrew Smith Clive Wright Ray Stewart |
Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

## Records

Existing records at the start of the event.
| World Record | United States (USA) | 37.83 | Los Angeles, USA | August 11, 1984 |
| Championship Record | United States (USA) | 37.86 | Helsinki, Finland | August 10, 1983 |

## Results

All times shown are in seconds.
* AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)
* DNS = did not start | DQ = disqualification | NM = no mark (i.e. no valid result) | Q = qualification by place in heat | q = qualification by overall place

### Final

| Rank | Team | Name | Result | Notes |
| | United States | Lee McRae, Lee McNeill, Harvey Glance, Carl Lewis | 37.90 | |
| | Soviet Union | Aleksandr Yevgenyev, Viktor Bryzgin, Vladimir Muravyov, Vladimir Krylov | 38.02 | AR |
| | Jamaica | John Mair, Andrew Smith, Clive Wright, Ray Stewart | 38.41 | |
| 4 | Canada | Ben Johnson, Atlee Mahorn, Desai Williams, Mike Dwyer) | 38.47 | |
| 5 | West Germany | Fritz Heer, Volker Westhagemann, Christian Haas, Norbert Dobeleit) | 38.73 | |
| 6 | Hungary | István Nagy, László Karaffa, István Tatár, Attila Kovács | 39.04 | |
| 7 | Italy | Ezio Madonia, Domenico Gorla, Paolo Catalano, Pierfrancesco Pavoni | 39.62 | |
| 8 | China | Li Tao, Cai Jianming, Li Feng, Zheng Chen | 39.93 | |

### Semi-finals
#### Heat 1

| Rank | Team | Name | Result | Notes |
| 1 | Soviet Union | Aleksandr Yevgenyev, Viktor Bryzgin, Vladimir Muravyov, Vladimir Krylov | 38.29 | Q |
| 2 | Canada | Ben Johnson, Atlee Mahorn, Desai Williams, Mike Dwyer | 38.50 | Q |
| 3 | West Germany | Fritz Heer, Volker Westhagemann, Christian Haas, Norbert Dobeleit | 38.84 | Q |
| 4 | Italy | Ezio Madonia, Stefano Tilli, Paolo Catalano, Pierfrancesco Pavoni | 39.52 | Q |
| 5 | Japan | Kaoru Matsubara, Hirohisa Ota, Masahiro Nagura, Hiroki Fuwa | 39.71 | |
| 6 | Spain | Miguel Ángel García, Juan José Prado, Angel Heras, José Javier Arqués | 39.74 | |
| 7 | Ghana | John Myles-Mills, Emmanuel Tuffour, Salaam Gariba, Eric Akogyiram | 39.94 | |
| 8 | Senegal | Charles-Louis Seck, Hamidou Diawara, Joseph Dias, Amadou Mbaye | 40.22 | |

#### Heat 2

| Rank | Team | Name | Result | Notes |
| 1 | United States | Lee McRae, Lee McNeill, Harvey Glance, Dennis Mitchell | 38.33 | Q |
| 2 | Jamaica | John Mair, Andrew Smith, Clive Wright, Ray Stewart | 38.66 | Q |
| 3 | Hungary | István Nagy, László Karaffa, István Tatár, Attila Kovács | 38.78 | Q |
| 4 | China | Li Tao, Cai Jianming, Li Feng, Zheng Chen | 39.05 | AR Q |
| 5 | Cuba | Ricardo Chacon, Leandro Peñalver, Sergio Querol, Andrés Simón | 39.08 | |
| 6 | Brazil | Joilto Bonfim, Carlos de Oliveira, Arnaldo de Oliveira Silva, Robson da Silva | 39.22 | |
| 7 | Chinese Taipei | Lai Cheng-Chuan, Lee Shiun-Long, Chang Yih-Yuan, Cheng Hsin-Fu | 39.90 | |
| 8 | Portugal | Arnaldo Abrantes, Pedro Curvelo, Luís Cunha, Luís Barroso | 40.24 | |

### Heats
#### Heat 1

| Rank | Country | Name | Result | Notes |
| 1 | United States | Lee McRae, Lee McNeill, Harvey Glance, Dennis Mitchell | 38.80 | Q |
| 2 | Hungary | István Nagy, László Karaffa, István Tatár, Attila Kovács | 39.11 | Q |
| 3 | Japan | Kaoru Matsubara, Hirohisa Ota, Masahiro Nagura, Hiroki Fuwa | 39.49 | Q |
| 4 | China | Li Tao, Cai Jianming, Li Feng, Zheng Chen | 39.63 | Q |
| 5 | Spain | Enrique Talavera, Juan José Prado, Miguel Ángel García, José Javier Arqués | 40.20 | q |
| 6 | Uganda | Moses Musonge, Joseph Ssali, Sunday Olweny, Edward Bitoga | 40.22 | |
| ** | Great Britain | Lincoln Asquith, John Regis, Mike McFarlane, Clarence Callender | DQ | |

#### Heat 2

| Rank | Country | Name | Result | Notes |
| 1 | Soviet Union | Aleksandr Yevgenyev, Viktor Bryzgin, Vladimir Muravyov, Andrey Fedoriv | 38.98 | Q |
| 2 | West Germany | Fritz Heer, Volker Westhagemann, Christian Haas, Norbert Dobeleit | 39.10 | Q |
| 3 | Brazil | Joilto Bonfim, Carlos de Oliveira, Arnaldo de Oliveira Silva, Robson da Silva | 39.57 | Q |
| 4 | Italy | Ezio Madonia, Stefano Tilli, Paolo Catalano, Pierfrancesco Pavoni | 39.58 | Q |
| 5 | Ghana | John Myles-Mills, Emmanuel Tuffour, Salaam Gariba, Eric Akogyiram | 39.77 | q |
| 6 | Chinese Taipei | Lai Cheng-Chuan, Lee Shiun-Long, Chang Yih-Yuan, Cheng Hsin-Fu | 40.05 | q |

#### Heat 3

| Rank | Team | Name | Result | Notes |
| 1 | Canada | Ben Johnson, Atlee Mahorn, Desai Williams, Mike Dwyer | 38.76 | Q |
| 2 | Jamaica | John Mair, Andrew Smith, Clive Wright, Ray Stewart | 38.88 | Q |
| 3 | Cuba | Ricardo Chacon, Leandro Peñalver, Sergio Querol, Andrés Simón | 39.44 | Q |
| 4 | Senegal | Charles-Louis Seck, Hamidou Diawara, Joseph Dias, Amadou Mbaye | 39.83 | Q |
| 5 | Portugal | Arnaldo Abrantes, Pedro Curvelo, Luís Cunha, Luís Barroso | 40.10 | q |
| ** | Nigeria | Augustine Olobia, Patrick Nwankwo, Innocent Egbunike, Chidi Imoh | DNS | |