After a break from sports to complete his studies in medicine, Markin returned at the European Championships in 1982, where he won two bronze medals (400 m and 4 × 400 m relay). At the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki Markin, the only Soviet competing in the individual 400 metres (as the rest were concentrating on the relay), was knocked out of the final in an extremely close photo finish by eventual bronze medalist Sunder Nix of the United States. However, he finished on a high note as in the last event of the Championships, the 4 × 400 m relay, the Soviets won an unexpected gold. West Germany already lost their winning chances on the first leg as Erwin Skamrahl (who had broken Markin's European record just three weeks earlier) gave up more than ten meters to Sergey Lovachov; the other main favorites, United States, hung with the Soviets for two and a half legs until Willie Smith tumbled and fell, leaving Markin an easy job to anchor home a USSR victory.