IIHF World Championship Division III
Current season, competition or edition: 2018 IIHF World Championship Division III | |
| Sport | Ice hockey |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1987 (Pool D) 2002 (Div II Qualification) 2003 (Division III) |
| No. of teams | 7 |
| Country | IIHF member countries |
| Continent | Worldwide |
| Most recent champion(s) |  Luxembourg (1st title) |
| Most titles |  North Korea (4 titles) |
| Qualification | Division III Qualification |
| Official website | IIHF.com |
The IIHF World Championship Division III are an annual sports event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation. They are the lowest level of the IIHF World Championships.
Organization
When the IIHF reorganized its World Championships hierarchy in 2001, nations outside of the top 40 were placed in Division II Qualification. The bottom two nations from Pool D did not participate in 2001 but were promoted to Division II for 2002, and by 2003 (with growing participation), the qualification tournament was renamed Division III.
From 2001 until 2011 the two national teams that finished last in their groups at the IIHF World Championship Division II were relegated to Division III for next year's World Championships. At the Division III Championship, the two best placed teams were promoted to next year's Division II Championship. However beginning in 2012, Division II B and Division III will exchange only one team.
According to the IIHF, the Men's championships will involve a maximum of 46 nations.[1] However in 2010 Division III was played in two pools of four, and in 2008 and in 2013 a qualification tournament was played to fill the final spots in the tournament. Tournament organizer (Turkey) allowed for a seven team tournament in 2015, and was going to do so again in 2016.[2]
Promotions
From 2002 until 2011 the two national teams that place the highest are promoted to Division II. Beginning in 2012 only the first place team was promoted to Division II B.
| Year | Co-Champions and Promoted | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001^ |  Turkey |
Luxembourg
|
| 2002 | North Korea |
 Mexico
|
| 2003 |  New Zealand |
Luxembourg
|
| 2004 |  Iceland |
Turkey
|
| 2005 | Mexico |
 South Africa
|
| 2006 | Iceland |
Turkey
|
| 2007 | New Zealand |
 Ireland
|
| 2008 | North Korea |
South Africa
|
| 2009 | New Zealand |
Turkey
|
| 2010 | North Korea |
Ireland
|
| 2011 |  Israel |
South Africa
|
| Year | Champion |
|---|---|
| 2012 | Turkey
|
| 2013 | South Africa
|
| 2014 |  Bulgaria
|
| 2015 | North Korea
|
| 2016 | Turkey
|
| 2017 | Luxembourg
|
| 2018 |  Georgia
|
^ – There were only two teams registered so the tournament was not played as both had automatically earned promotion
Pool D
Champions 1987–2000
| Year | National team |
|---|---|
| 1987 |  Australia
|
| 1989 |  Belgium
|
| 1990 |  Great Britain
|
| 1992^ |  Spain
|
| 1994^ |  Estonia
|
| 1995^ |  Croatia
|
| 1996 |  Lithuania
|
| 1997 | Croatia
|
| 1998 | Bulgaria
|
| 1999 | Spain
|
| 2000 | Israel
|
^ – In 1992, 1994 and 1995 there was no Pool D. However Pool C was divided in two tiers where the winner of 'C2' was promoted to 'C1', essentially making C2 the same as D. Accordingly, the winners (Spain, Estonia and Croatia) are listed here.
Summary of participation
29 championships
- In 2010 two four team tournaments were played, this charts ranks them together assigning gold silver and bronze to the nations ranked 41st, 42nd, and 43rd overall.
| Team | Times | First | Last | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | Best finish (first/last) | Hosted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Armenia |
4 | 2004 | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3rd (2006) | 1 |
| Australia |
9 | 1987 | 2000 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1st (1987) | 1 |
| Belgium |
9 | 1989 | 2000 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1st (1989) | 1 |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina |
3 | 2008 | 2016 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5th (2016) | 0 |
| Bulgaria |
5 | 1996 | 2018 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1st (1998/2014) | 1 |
 Chinese Taipei[N1] |
2 | 2017 | 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4th (2018) | 0 |
| Croatia |
3 | 1994 | 1997 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1st (1995/1997) | 0 |
| Estonia |
1 | 1994 | 1994 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1st (1994) | 0 |
| Georgia |
5 | 2013 | 2018 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1st (2018) | 0 |
| Great Britain |
2 | 1989 | 1990 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1st (1990) | 1 |
 Greece |
10 | 1992 | 2013 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3rd (1992/2010) | 0 |
 Hong Kong |
6 | 1987 | 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4th (1987/2017) | 0 |
| Iceland |
4 | 1999 | 2006 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1st (2004/2006) | 3 |
| Ireland |
8 | 2004 | 2013 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1st (2010) | 1 |
| Israel |
9 | 1992 | 2011 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1st (2000/2011) | 0 |
 Lithuania |
2 | 1995 | 1996 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1st (1996) | 1 |
| Luxembourg |
16 | 1992 | 2017 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 1st (2017) | 2 |
| Mexico |
4 | 2000 | 2005 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1st (2005) | 3 |
 Mongolia |
6 | 2007 | 2013 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5th (2007) | 0 |
| New Zealand |
10 | 1987 | 2009 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1st (2003/2009) | 2 |
| North Korea |
7 | 2002 | 2015 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 1st (2002/2015) | 0 |
 Romania |
1 | 1989 | 1989 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2nd (1989) | 0 |
 Serbia and Montenegro[N2] |
2 | 1996 | 1997 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2nd (1996) | 0 |
| South Africa |
15 | 1992 | 2018 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 1st (2013) | 6 |
 South Korea |
5 | 1987 | 1997 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2nd (1987/1997) | 0 |
| Spain |
8 | 1989 | 1999 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 1st (1992/1999) | 1 |
| Turkey |
14 | 1992 | 2018 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 1st (2012/2016) | 2 |
 United Arab Emirates |
5 | 2010 | 2017 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5th (2014) | 0 |
- ^ Note 1. Commonly known as Taiwan.
- ^ Note 2. Known then as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
- Andorra also hosted one tournament.
See also
- Ice Hockey World Championships
- IIHF World Championship Division I
- IIHF World Championship Division II
References
- Duplacey, James (1998). Total Hockey: The official encyclopedia of the National Hockey League. Total Sports. pp. 498–528. ISBN 0-8362-7114-9.
- Podnieks, Andrew (2010). IIHF Media Guide & Record Book 2011. Moydart Press.
