IIHF World Championship Division III

IIHF World Championship Division III
2016 IIHF World Championship Division III
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	1987 (Pool D) 2002 (Div II Qualification) 2003 (Division III)
No. of teams	various
Most recent champion(s)	Turkey
Most championship(s)	North Korea (4)
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. 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 will do so again in 2016.

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

^ – 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

25 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	2008	0	0	0	0	3rd (2006/2008)	1
Australia	9	1987	2000	1	2	2	5	1st (1987)	1
Belgium	8	1989	2000	1	1	0	2	1st (1989)	1
Bosnia and Herzegovina	3	2008	2016	0	0	0	0	5th (2016)	0
Bulgaria	4	1996	2014	2	0	0	2	1st (1998/2014)	0
Croatia	3	1994	1997	2	0	0	2	1st (1995/1997)	0
Spain	8	1989	1999	2	1	4	7	1st (1992/1999)	1
Estonia	1	1994	1994	1	0	0	1	1st (1994)	0
Georgia	4	2013	2016	0	1	0	1	2nd (2016)	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	4	1987	2016	0	0	0	0	4th (1987/2015)	0
Ireland	8	2004	2013	1	1	0	2	1st (2010)	1
Iceland	4	1999	2006	2	0	0	0	1st (2004/2006)	3
Israel	9	1992	2011	2	1	1	4	1st (2000/2011)	0
South Korea	5	1987	1997	0	2	1	3	2nd (1987/1997)	0
Lithuania	2	1995	1996	1	1	0	2	1st (1996)	1
Luxembourg	15	1992	2016	0	1	8	9	2nd (2003)	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
South Africa	13	1992	2016	1	4	1	6	1st (2013)	6
Serbia and Montenegro	2	1996	1997	0	1	0	1	2nd (1996)	0
Turkey	13	1992	2016	2	4	2	8	1st (2012/2016)	2
United Arab Emirates	4	2010	2015	0	0	0	0	5th (2014)	0

• ^ Note 1. Known then as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• Andorra also hosted one tournament.

See also

• List of IIHF World Championship Division III venues
• Ice Hockey World Championships
• IIHF World Championship Division I
• IIHF World Championship Division II

Links and References

• 2010 IIHF Championship Program
• Duplacey, James (1998). Total Hockey: The official encyclopedia of the National Hockey League. Total Sports, 498–528. ISBN 0-8362-7114-9. 
• Podnieks, Andrew (2010). IIHF Media Guide & Record Book 2011. Moydart Press. 

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