# 1983 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 4 × 400 metres relay

The 4 × 400 metres relay at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on August 13 and August 14.

## Medals

| Gold: | Silver: | Bronze: |
| Soviet Union Sergey Lovachov Aleksandr Troshchilo Nikolay Chernetskiy Viktor Markin | West Germany Erwin Skamrahl Jörg Vaihinger Harald Schmid Hartmut Weber | Great Britain Ainsley Bennett Garry Cook Todd Bennett Philip Brown |

## Records

Existing records at the start of the event.
| World Record | United States (USA) | 2:56.16 | Mexico City, Mexico | October 20, 1968 |
| Championship Record | New event | New event | New event | New event |

## Results
### Heats

All times shown are in minutes.
* 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

* United States (Alonzo Babers, Willie Smith, Andre Phillips, Michael Franks) 3:06.62 Q
* West Germany (Martin Weppler, Jörg Vaihinger, Harald Schmid, Hartmut Weber) 3:07.50 Q
* Italy (Stefano Malinverni, Donato Sabia, Mauro Zuliani, Roberto Ribaud) 3:07.90 Q
* Brazil (Antônio Dias Ferreira, Agberto Guimarães, José Luíz Barbosa, Gerson A. Souza) 3:08.25 Q
* Sweden (Tommy Johansson, Eric Josjö, Sven Nylander, Per-Erik Olsson) 3:08.33 q
* Canada (Mark Guthrie, Douglas Hinds, Tim Bethune, Brian Saunders) 3:08.37 q
* Jamaica (Steve Griffiths, George Walcott, Devon Morris, Karl Smith) 3:09.06
* Finland (Jari Niemelä, Mauri Siekkinen, Matti Rusanen, Hannu Mykrä) 3:09.23

#### Heat 2

* Hungary (Gusztáv Menczer, Sándor Újhelyi, István Takács, Sándor Vasvári) 3:09.95 Q
* Soviet Union (Viktor Markin, Sergey Lovachov, Aleksandr Troshchilo, Nikolay Chernetskiy) 3:10.16 Q
* Great Britain (Kriss Akabusi, Garry Cook, Todd Bennett, Philip Brown) 3:10.19 Q
* Senegal (Amadou Dia Ba, Moussa Fall, Babacar Niang, Boubacar Diallo) 3:10.90 Q
* Australia (Bruce Frayne, Gary Minihan, Paul Gilbert, Darren Clark) 3:11.62
** Ghana DNS
** Bahamas DNS

#### Heat 3

* France (Jacques Fellice, Yann Quentrec, Hector Llatser, Aldo Canti) 3:06.99 Q
* Czechoslovakia (Miroslav Zahořák, Petr Břečka, Dušan Malovec, Ján Tomko) 3:07.03 Q
* Poland (Ryszard Wichrowski, Ryszard Szparak, Andrzej Stępień, Ryszard Podlas) 3:07.18 Q
* Japan (Kazunori Asaba, Tomoharu Isobe, Hirofumi Koike, Susumu Takano) 3:07.23 Q
* Spain (Juan José Prado, Antonio Sánchez, Carlos Azulay, Angel Heras) 3:07.42 q
* Kenya (Elijah Bitok, John Anzrah, James Atuti, Juma Ndiwa) 3:07.48 q
* Ivory Coast (Georges Kablan Degnan, Rene Djedjemel Meledje, Avognan Nogboum, Gabriel Tiacoh) 3:09.23
** Uganda (John Goville, Mike Okot, Charles Mbazira, Moses Kyeswa) DQ

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

* United States (Alonzo Babers, Sunder Nix, Willie Smith, Edwin Moses) 3:02.13 Q
* West Germany (Erwin Skamrahl, Jörg Vaihinger, Edgar Nakladal, Harald Schmid) 3:04.96 Q
* Poland (Ryszard Wichrowski, Ryszard Szparak, Andrzej Stępień, Ryszard Podlas) 3:05.51 Q
* Italy (Stefano Malinverni, Donato Sabia, Mauro Zuliani, Roberto Ribaud) 3:05.70 Q
* Canada (Brian Saunders, Douglas Hinds, Ian Newhouse, Tim Bethune) 3:06.42
* Japan (Tomoharu Isobe, Kazunori Asaba, Hirofumi Koike, Susumu Takano) 3:07.11
* Senegal (Moussa Fall, Babacar Niang, Mathurin Barry, Amadou Dia Ba) 3:09.63
* Hungary (Gusztáv Menczer, Sándor Újhelyi, István Takács, Sándor Vasvári) 3:11.08

#### Heat 2

* Soviet Union (Sergey Lovachov, Aleksandr Troshchilo, Nikolay Chernetskiy, Viktor Markin) 3:03.75 Q
* Great Britain (Kriss Akabusi, Garry Cook, Todd Bennett, Philip Brown) 3:04.03 Q
* Czechoslovakia (Miroslav Zahořák, Petr Břečka, Dušan Malovec, Ján Tomko) 3:04.32 Q
* Sweden (Tommy Johansson, Eric Josjö, Sven Nylander, Per-Erik Olsson) 3:04.32 Q
* Brazil (Antônio Dias Ferreira, Agberto Guimarães, José Luíz Barbosa, Gerson A. Souza) 3:04.46 (AR)
* France (Jacques Fellice, Yann Quentrec, Hector Llatser, Aldo Canti) 3:05.09
* Kenya (David Kitur, John Anzrah, James Atuti, James Maina Boi) 3:05.30
* Spain (Juan José Prado, Antonio Sánchez, Carlos Azulay, Angel Heras) 3:09.68

### Final

* Soviet Union (Sergey Lovachov, Aleksandr Troshchilo, Nikolay Chernetskiy, Viktor Markin) 3:00.79
* West Germany (Erwin Skamrahl, Jörg Vaihinger, Harald Schmid, Hartmut Weber) 3:01.83
* Great Britain (Ainsley Bennett, Garry Cook, Todd Bennett, Philip Brown) 3:03.53
* Czechoslovakia (Miroslav Zahořák, Petr Břečka, Dušan Malovec, Ján Tomko) 3:03.90
* Italy (Stefano Malinverni, Donato Sabia, Mauro Zuliani, Roberto Ribaud) 3:05.10
* United States (Alonzo Babers, Sunder Nix, Willie Smith, Edwin Moses) 3:05.29
* Sweden (Tommy Johansson, Eric Josjö, Per-Erik Olsson, Ulf Sedlacek) 3:08.57
** Poland (Ryszard Wichrowski, Ryszard Szparak, Andrzej Stępień, Ryszard Podlas) DNF