# 1983 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 4 × 100 metres relay

The 4 × 100 metres relay at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on August 9 and August 10.

## Medals

| Gold: | Silver: | Bronze: |
| United States Emmit King Willie Gault Calvin Smith Carl Lewis | Italy Stefano Tilli Carlo Simionato Pierfrancesco Pavoni Pietro Mennea | Soviet Union Andrey Prokofyev Nikolay Sidorov Vladimir Muravyov Viktor Bryzgin |

## Records

Existing records at the start of the event.
| World Record | United States (USA) | 38.03 | Düsseldorf, West Germany | September 3, 1977 |
| Championship Record | New event | New event | New event | New event |

## Results
### Heats

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

#### Heat 1

* East Germany (Andreas Knebel, Thomas Schröder, Jens Hübler, Frank Emmelmann) 39.22 Q
* Bulgaria (Krasimir Sarbakov, Yordan Vandov, Bogomil Karadimov, Valentin Atanasov) 39.55 Q
* Great Britain (Ainsley Bennett, Donovan Reid, Mike McFarlane, Drew McMaster) 39.56 Q
* Nigeria (Innocent Egbunike, Ikpoto Eseme, Samson Oyeledun, Chidi Imoh) 39.62 Q
* Finland (Jouko Lehtinen, Jouko Hassi, Jukka Sihvonen, Kimmo Saaristo) 39.65 q
* Bahamas (Fabian Whymns, Austin Albury, Joey Wells, David Charlton) 39.91 q
* Ghana (Ernest Obeng, Sam Aidoo, Edward Pappoe, Awudu Nuhu) 41.92
** Cuba DNS

#### Heat 2

* United States (Emmit King, Willie Gault, Calvin Smith, Carl Lewis) 38.75 Q
* Italy (Stefano Tilli, Carlo Simionato, Pierfrancesco Pavoni, Pietro Mennea) 39.40 Q
* Hungary (Ferenc Kiss, István Nagy, László Babály, István Tatár) 39.58 Q
* Australia (Paul Narracott, Gerrard Keating, Bruce Frayne, Gary Minihan) 40.02 Q
* Ivory Coast (Otokpa Kouadio, Avognan Nogboum, Georges Kablan Degnan, Gabriel Tiacoh) 40.70
** China (Wang Shaoming, He Baodang, Cai Jianming, Yan Guoqiang) DQ
** Canada (Ben Johnson, Atlee Mahorn, Desai Williams, Tony Sharpe) DQ
** Kenya (Alfred Nyambane Johnson, Peter Wekesa, John Anzrah, Moja Shivanda) DQ

#### Heat 3

* Soviet Union (Andrey Prokofyev, Nikolay Sidorov, Vladimir Muravyov, Viktor Bryzgin) 38.77 Q
* France (Thierry Francois, Marc Gasparoni, Antoine Richard, Jean-Jacques Boussemart) 39.17 Q
* West Germany (Werner Bastians, Christian Haas, Jürgen Evers, Andreas Rizzi) 39.35 Q
* Poland (Krzysztof Zwoliński, Zenon Licznerski, Czesław Prądzyński, Marian Woronin) 39.41 Q
* Jamaica (George Walcott, Ray Stewart, Leroy Reid, Colin Bradford) 39.49 q
* Greece (Angelos Angelidis, Theodoros Gatzios, Nikos Hadjinicolaou, Kosmas Stratos) 39.85 q
* Thailand (Somsak Boontad, Suchart Chairsuvaparb, Prasit Boomprasert, Sumet Promna) 40.17
* Chinese Taipei (Wu Jing-Yee, Lee Kuo-Sheng, Hwang Chian-Shin, Hwang Sheng-Tai) 40.49

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

* Soviet Union (Andrey Prokofyev, Nikolay Sidorov, Vladimir Muravyov, Viktor Bryzgin) 38.62 Q
* Italy (Stefano Tilli, Carlo Simionato, Pierfrancesco Pavoni, Pietro Mennea) 38.74 Q
* Poland (Krzysztof Zwoliński, Zenon Licznerski, Czesław Prądzyński, Marian Woronin) 39.01 Q
* France (Thierry Francois, Marc Gasparoni, Antoine Richard, Jean-Jacques Boussemart) 39.14 Q
* Nigeria (Innocent Egbunike, Ikpoto Eseme, Samson Oyeledun, Chidi Imoh) 39.44
* Greece (Angelos Angelidis, Theodoros Gatzios, Nikos Hadjinicolaou, Kosmas Stratos) 39.71
* Finland (Jouko Lehtinen, Jouko Hassi, Jukka Sihvonen, Kimmo Saaristo) 40.02
** Hungary (Ferenc Kiss, István Nagy, László Babály, István Tatár) DNF

#### Heat 2

* United States (Emmit King, Willie Gault, Calvin Smith, Carl Lewis) 38.50 Q
* East Germany (Andreas Knebel, Thomas Schröder, Jens Hübler, Frank Emmelmann) 38.95 Q
* West Germany (Werner Bastians, Christian Haas, Jürgen Evers, Andreas Rizzi) 39.13 Q
* Jamaica (George Walcott, Ray Stewart, Leroy Reid, Colin Bradford) 39.18 Q
* Great Britain (Ainsley Bennett, Donovan Reid, Mike McFarlane, Drew McMaster) 39.39
* Bulgaria (Krasimir Sarbakov, Yordan Vandov, Bogomil Karadimov, Valentin Atanasov) 39.59
* Bahamas (Fabian Whymns, Austin Albury, Joey Wells, David Charlton) 40.52
** Australia (Paul Narracott, Gerrard Keating, Bruce Frayne, Gary Minihan) DNS

### Final

* United States (Emmit King, Willie Gault, Calvin Smith, Carl Lewis) 37.86 (WR)
* Italy (Stefano Tilli, Carlo Simionato, Pierfrancesco Pavoni, Pietro Mennea) 38.37 (NR)
* Soviet Union (Andrey Prokofyev, Nikolay Sidorov, Vladimir Muravyov, Viktor Bryzgin) 38.41
* East Germany (Andreas Knebel, Thomas Schröder, Jens Hübler, Frank Emmelmann) 38.51
* West Germany (Werner Bastians, Christian Haas, Jürgen Evers, Andreas Rizzi) 38.56
* Poland (Krzysztof Zwoliński, Zenon Licznerski, Czesław Prądzyński, Marian Woronin) 38.72
* Jamaica (George Walcott, Ray Stewart, Leroy Reid, Colin Bradford) 38.75
* France (Thierry Francois, Marc Gasparoni, Antoine Richard, Jean-Jacques Boussemart) 38.98