| Rk | Final 17:00 | time |   | gap | L | _______  |  | 1. |   West Germany | 3:51.57 |   |   | 3 |  |  | Klaus Steinbach 58.56s, Walter Kusch 1:04.63, Folkert Meeuw 56.65s, Peter Nocke 51.73s |  | 2. |   Great Britain | 3:54.13 |   | +2.46s | 5 |  |  | Colin Cunningham 59.82s, David Wilkie 1:03.61, Stephen Nash 58.18s, Brian Brinkley 52.52s |  | 3. |   Soviet Union | 3:54.37 |   | +2.80s | 6 |  |  | Igor Potyakin 1:00.53, Nikolay Pankin 1:04.75, Viktor Sharygin 56.89s, Vladimir Bure 52.20s |  | 4. |   East Germany | 3:54.63 |   | +3.06s | 4 |  |  | Roland Matthes 57.79s, Christian Lietzmann 1:07.80, Roger Pyttel 55.41s, Wilfried Hartung 53.63s |  | 5. |   Italy | 3:58.50 |   | +6.93s | 2 |  |  | Lapo Cianchi 1:01.50, Giorgio Lalle 1:06.60, Paolo Barelli 58.23s, Roberto Pangaro 52.17s |  | 6. |   Spain | 3:59.15 |   | +7.58s | 7 |  |  | Santiago Esteva 59.73s, Pedro Balcells 1:08.19, Arturo Lang-Lenton 57.73s, Jorge Comas 53.50s |  | 7. |   Hungary | 4:00.47 |   | +8.90s | 8 |  |  | Zoltán Verrasztó 59.77, Sándor Szabó 1:08.50s, András Hargitay 57.69s, Jenő Hámori 54.51s |  | 8. |   France | 4:01.34 |   | +9.77s | 1 |  |  | Franck Meslier 1:02.93, Bernard Combet 1:07.16, Serge Buttet 58.84s, Michel Rousseau 52.41s |   
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 Heats - Sunday, 25th August 10:40 |  | Best 8 times advanced to Final.  |   
| Rk | Heat 2 | time |   | gap | L | Rk | _______  |  | 1. |   East Germany | 3:57.59 |   |   | - | 1. |  |  | Lutz Wanja 59.94s, Christian Lietzmann 1:06.90, Hartmut Flöckner 57.11s, Wilfried Hartung 53.64, |  | 2. |   Great Britain | 3:57.61 |   | 0.02s | - | 2. |  |  | Colin Cunningham 1:00.43, David Wilkie 1:05.03, Stephen Nash 58.73s, Brian Brinkley 53.42s |  | 3. |   Italy | 3:59.28 |   | 1.69s | - | 5. |  |  | Lapo Cianchi 1:01.08, Giorgio Lalle 1:06.42, Paolo Barelli 58.90s, Roberto Pangaro 52.88s |  | 4. |   France | 4:01.11 |   | 3.52s | - | 7. |  |  | Franck Meslier 1:02.75, Bernard Combet 1:06.95, Serge Buttet 58.91s, Michel Rousseau 52.50s |  | 5. |   Norway | 4:02.37 |   | 4.78s | - | 10. |  |  | Atle Melberg 1:02.58, Ove Wisløff 1:07.28, Gunnar Gundersen 59.93s, Fritz Warncke 52.58, |  | 6. |   Austria | 4:05.58 |   | 7.99s | - | 12. |  |  | Helmut Podolan 1:02.36, Steffen Kriechbaum 1:07.28, Josef Maurer 1:00.55, Andreas Hoffmann 55.39s |  | 7. |   Ireland | 4:26.58 |   | 28.99s | - | 14. |  |  | Rob Howard 1:03.87, Desmond Coyle 1:18.60, Francis White 1:02.40, Kevin Williamson 1:01.71 |   
     | Rk | Heat 1 | time |   | gap | L | Rk | _______  |  | 1. |   West Germany | 3:57.99 |   | 0.40s | - | 3. |  |  | Bodo Schlag 1:00.38, Thomas Pähr 1:06.92, Michael Kraus 57.55s, Gerhard Schiller 53.14s |  | 2. |   Soviet Union | 3:58.85 |   | 1.26s | - | 4. |  |  | Igor Potyakin 1:00.69, Viktor Sharygin 58.43s, Mikhail Khryukin 1:06.39, Anatoly Rybakov 53.34s |  | 3. |   Spain | 4:00.31 |   | 2.72s | - | 6. |  |  | Santiago Esteva 1:00.10, Pedro Balcells 1:08.04, Arturo Lang-Lenton 58.29s, Jorge Comas 53.88s |  | 4. |   Hungary | 4:01.53 |   | 3.94s | - | 8. |  |  | Zoltán Verrasztó 59.74s, Sándor Szabó 1:09.19, András Hargitay 58.11s, Jenő Hámori 54.49 |  | 5. |   Sweden | 4:02.00 |   | 4.41s | - | 9. |  |  | Svante Zetterlund 1:01.00s, Glen Christiansen 1:08.85, Per Berglund 58.35s, Bernt Zarnowiecki 53.80s |  | 6. |   Yugoslavia | 4:03.98 |   | 6.39s | - | 11. |  |  | Predrag Miloš 1:01.09, Zdravko Divjak 1:09.21, Miljenko Lolić 1:00.29, Rene Lustig 53.39s |  | 7. |   Finland | 4:11.16 |   | 13.55s | - | 13. |  |  | Lars Finer 1:03.98, Tuomo Kerola 1:09.27, Arto Lainekivi 1:02.29, Antti Lehtonen 55.62s |   
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