| Final | time | | 1. Edwin Moses |  USA | 47.46s | | 2. Danny Harris | USA | 47.48s | | 3. Harald Schmid |  FRG | 47.48s | | 4. Sven Nylander |  SWE | 48.37s | | 5. Amadou Dia Ba |  SEN | 48.37s | | 6. Henry Amike |  NGR | 48.63s | | 7. Kriss Akabusi |  GBR | 48.74s | | 8. Jose Alonso |  ESP | 49.46s |
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| Semi 1 | team | | 1. Harald Schmid | FRG | 48.23s | | 2. Danny Harris | USA | 48.24s | | 3. Sven Nylander | SWE | 48.46s | | 4. Henry Amike | NGR | 48.50s | | 5. David Patrick | USA | 48.56s | | 6. Winthrop Graham |  JAM | 48.64s | | 7. Shem Ochako |  KEN | 49.87s | | 8. Max Robertson | GBR | 49.90s |
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| Semi 2 | team | | 1. Edwin Moses | USA | 48.38s | | 2. Amadou Dia Ba | SEN | 48.53s | | 3. Kriss Akabusi | GBR | 48.64s | | 4. Jose Alonso | ESP | 49.00s | | 5. Thomas Nyberg | SWE | 49.03s | | 6. Toma Tomov |  BUL | 49.11s | | 7. Ryoichi Yoshida |  JPN | 49.39s | | -. Aleksandr Vasilyev |  URS | DNF |
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| Heat 1 | team | | 1. Edwin Moses | USA | 49.03s | | 2. Henry Amike | NGR | 49.56s | | 3. Ryoichi Yoshida | JPN | 49.87s | | 4. Simon Kitur | KEN | 50.30s | | 5. Martin Gillingham | GBR | 50.64s | | 6. Michel Zimmerman |  BEL | 50.70s | | 7. Pedro Chiamulera |  BRA | 50.71s | | -. Victor Lima Raimundo |  STP | DNS |
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| Heat 2 | team | | 1. Danny Harris | USA | 48.74s | | 2. Max Robertson | GBR | 49.73s | | 3. Shem Ochako | KEN | 49.86s | | 4. Gilles Vimbert |  FRA | 50.34s | | 5. Thomas Futterknecht |  AUT | 50.44s | | 6. Pablo Squella |  CHI | 50.73s | | 7. Edgar Itt | FRG | 51.18s | | -. Prince Dowai |  SLE | DNS |
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| Heat 3 | team | | 1. Harald Schmid | FRG | 49.28s | | 2. Kriss Akabusi | GBR | 49.36s | | 3. Aleksandr Vasilyev | URS | 49.99s | | 4. Joseph Maritim | KEN | 50.04s | | 5. Angelo Locci |  ITA | 51.15s | | 6. Shigenobu Ohmori | JPN | 51.20s | | 7. Rok Kopitar |  YUG | 51.53s | | 8. Ilan Goldwasser |  ISR | 52.54s |
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| Heat 4 | team | | 1. Sven Nylander | SWE | 49.95s | | 2. Amadou Dia Ba | SEN | 50.02s | | 3. Uwe Schmitt | FRG | 50.54s | | 4. Rik Tommelein | BEL | 50.63s | | 5. Jasem Goma'an Al-Duaillah |  KUW | 50.97s | | 6. Krasimir Demirev | BUL | 51.07s | | 7. Jozef Kucej |  TCH | 51.13s | | 8. Wilfredo Ferrer |  VEN | 53.03s |
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| Heat 5 | team | | 1. Toma Tomov | BUL | 49.27s | | 2. Winthrop Graham | JAM | 49.34s | | 3. Jose Alonso | ESP | 49.42s | | 4. Randy Cox |  TRI | 50.14s | | 5. Philippe Gonigam | FRA | 50.38s | | 6. Daniel Ogidi | NGR | 50.51s | | 7. Klaus Ehrle | AUT | 50.91s | | 8. Ahmed Abdelhalim Ghanem |  EGY | 51.35s |
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| Heat 6 | team | | 1. Thomas Nyberg | SWE | 50.06s | | 2. David Patrick | USA | 50.10s | | 3. John Graham |  CAN | 50.23s | | 4. Greg Rolle |  BAH | 50.63s | | 5. Stanislav Navesnak | TCH | 50.65s | | 6. Athanasios Kalogiannis |  GRE | 51.94s | | 7. Ken Gordon |  AUS | 52.22s |
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