Bandy World Championships
The Bandy World Championships are a competition between bandy-playing nations (they should not be confused with the Bandy World Cup, a club competition). The tournament is administrated by the Federation of International Bandy.
Although bandy has been played since the 19th century, the first men's world championships were only played in 1957, and the first women's ones were only in 2004. Bandy tournament was held as a demonstration sport at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. From 1961-2003, the men's championships were played every two years, but has since then been played annually. The WCS in 2010 was first cancelled,[citation needed] but then Moscow agreed to organize it on short notice.[citation needed]
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Participating nations [edit]
Men [edit]
For a long time, only four countries competed in the world championships: the Soviet Union, Sweden, Finland and Norway, with the Soviet Union as the dominating country. Since then, more countries have joined the tournaments, starting with the United States in 1985. The interest for the sport has spread to other parts of Europe, North America and Asia, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 also opened the way for separate national teams from the former states of that union. The record number of participants are 14 for men and 7 for women. With more nations competing, group B was created in 1991. From 2012 there was a group C for the first time as 14 countries participated. Japan and Kyrgyzstan made their first World Championships. Russia, Finland, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Norway and USA played in group A, Belarus, Canada, the Netherlands, Hungary and Latvia in group B and Estonia, Kyrgyzstan and Japan in group C. In each championship, the best team in group B use to go into a playoff match with the team which came bottom of the A-group, replacing them if they won. There was no playoff match in 2012. The last team of group A was automatically relegated and the 1st team of group B promoted. The same goes for the exchange between the groups B and C. In 2004 the B-pool was played in a location separate from group A for the first time, at Városligeti Műjégpálya in Budapest. In 2013 it will happen again as Vetlanda will host the B-pool, whereas Vänersborg will be the main venue of the A-pool. Three matches will be played at other locations, Trollhättan, Gothenburg and Oslo.
Women [edit]
Sweden, Russia, Finland, Norway and USA have participated in every tournament, Canada and Hungary in some. England plan to participate in 2014.[1]
TV broadcasting [edit]
The interest is biggest in Sweden, Finland and Russia.[2] For a few times now it has been shown on Eurosport 2. FIB has given the rights for the 2012 tournament to SPORTLIVE LLC.[1]
Bandy World Championships, men [edit]
Medal table [edit]
Countries in italics no longer compete at the World Championships.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Soviet Union |
14 | 2 | 1 | 17 |
| 2 |  Sweden |
11 | 15 | 7 | 33 |
| 3 |  Russia |
7 | 8 | 1 | 16 |
| 4 |  Finland |
1 | 7 | 19 | 27 |
| 5 |  Norway |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 |  Kazakhstan |
0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
Bandy World Championships, women [edit]
| Year | Final Venue | Gold medal | Result | Silver medal | Bronze medal | Result | Fourth place | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 Details |
Lappeenranta |
 Sweden |
7–0 |  Russia |
 Finland |
8–1 |  Norway |
||
| 2006 Details |
 Roseville |
Sweden |
3–1 | Russia |
Norway |
2–1 | Finland |
||
| 2007 Details |
 Budapest |
Sweden |
3–2 | Russia |
Norway |
4–3 (ps) |  Canada |
||
| 2008 Details |
Borlänge |
Sweden |
5–2 | Russia |
Finland |
5–3 | Norway |
||
| 2010 Details |
Drammen |
Sweden |
3–2 | Russia |
Norway |
3–2 | Canada |
||
| 2012 Details |
Irkutsk |
Sweden |
5–3 | Russia |
Finland |
4–1 | Canada |
Medal table [edit]
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweden |
6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 2 | Russia |
0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 3 | Finland |
0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | Norway |
0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
References [edit]
External links [edit]
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