IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship

The IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The 14th championship will be held between June 6 and June 13, 2009 in Ingolstadt, Germany.

History

The IIHF In-Line Hockey World Championship is one of the youngest IIHF events, but one that has largely grown in importance since its inception in 1996. In-Line Hockey as a sport has grown rapidly since 1996 and now more nations than ever are fielding teams and the World Championship is becoming increasingly more competitive.

During the first three years of the IIHF In-Line Hockey World Championship, North American teams dominated the field. The United States and Canada finished in first and second place at each of the first three championships, in which the United States played host to each year.

In 1998, the format of the tournament changed and so, for the first time, did the gold medalist. The tournament was expanded to include two groups, one with the top eight teams in Anaheim, California and the other group, with the next eight nations, hosted in Bratislava, Slovakia. This was one of the earliest signs of In-Line Hockey’s growing popularity around the globe. Canada upset the two-time world champion and hosts, Team USA, for the gold medal.

The 2000 World Championship was the first true shift in the standings to Europe’s advantage. Finland finally upgraded its bronze medal and went home with the gold after defeating the hosts, the Czech Republic, in the final game. Team USA closed out the medal winners with a bronze medal. The 2000 World Championship also featured New Zealand and Chile in the world championship mix for the first time. Overall, the 2000 tournament had teams from four continents (North America, South America, Europe and Australia) represented.

In 2001, Finland won the gold medal for the second straight year, edging out the host again, this time, Team USA. The Czech Republic took home a medal for the second straight year, earning the bronze medal and again four continents were represented.

In 2002, Sweden emerged from out of nowhere to win its first-ever medal, which proved to be gold. The highest the Swede’s had ever finished in the A Group previously was fifth and it was just Sweden’s third season in the top Group. That year, Germany gave the fans in Nurnberg something to cheer about, earning its first-ever medal at the In-Line Hockey World Championship, a bronze medal effort.

In 2003, it was Finland squeaking past Sweden in the final game, while Team USA returned to the podium, claiming the bronze medal.

Format

The modern format for the World Championships features a minimum of 16 teams: 8 teams in the Top Divisions and 8 teams in Division I. If there are more than 16 teams, the rest compete in Division I as well.

In the Preliminary round the 16 teams are split into 4 groups (Groups A through D) with Groups A and B forming the Top Division, and the Groups C and D forming Division I. The teams play each other in a round robin format, and the top 3 teams in Groups A and B advance to the Top Division playoffs. The two last-placed teams in Groups A and B and the two first-placed teams of Groups C and D play for the 4th placed in Group A and B to participate in the Top Division playoffs. The losers of those games play as first-placed teams in Groups C and D to participate in the Division I playoffs. The playoffs for the Top Division and Division I are a knockout playoff stage. In the quarterfinals the first place team from one group plays the fourth place team from the other group, and the second place team from one group plays the third place team from the other group. The winners advance to the semifinals. The winners of the semifinals advance to the Gold medal game, and the losers advance to the Bronze medal game.

The IIHF consists of 2 tournaments. The Top Division tournament is the main one and below that is the Division I tournament. At the end of the tournament the best seven teams of the Top Division and the winner of Division I will be qualified for the next year's IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship Top Division. The last-placed team of the Top Division will be relegated to the next year's IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship Division I.

The ranking of the groups is based according to the result of the last World Championships performance of the respective countries in the IIHF InLine Hockey Program and the qualification rounds.

All games in the preliminary round and in the playoffs will be played with 5-minute sudden-death overtime and a penalty shootout in case of a tie. The final games will be played with a 12- minute sudden-death overtime, followed by a penalty shootout competition in case of a tie.

Top Division

The 14th championship will be held between June 6 and June 13, 2009 in Ingolstadt, Germany.

The Top Division comprises the top eight inline hockey nations in the world. For the 2009 tournament, the teams are aligned into groups as follows:

Group A

*iih|SWE
*iih|USA
*iih|CZE
*iih|CAN--Promoted to the Top Division for the 2009 tournament

Group B

*iih|SVK
*iih|GER
*iih|FIN
*iih|SLO

Division I

The rest of the inline hockey nations comprise Division I. For the 2009 tournament, the teams are aligned into groups as follows.

Group C

*iih|AUT--Relegated from the Top Division for the 2009 tournament
*iih|AUS
*iih|HUN
*To Be Determined--Qualified for the 2009 tournament

Group D

*iih|GBR
*iih|BRA
*iih|JPN
*To Be Determined--Qualified for the 2009 tournament

2009 Qualification

Qualification 1

iih|NAM vs. iih|RSA will play a best-of-two qualification on August 24 and August 30, 2008 in Namibia and South Africa.

Qualification 2

iih|CHN vs. iih|TPE will play a best-of-two qualification on September 5 and September 6, 2008 in Chinese Taipei.

IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship

Top Division champions

Division I medal table

External links

* [http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/championships/inline.html Inline hockey on official IIHF website]