IIHF World Championship Division III
Current season, competition or edition: 2016 IIHF World Championship Division III
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| Sport | Ice hockey |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1987 (Pool D) 2002 (Div II Qualification) 2003 (Division III) |
| No. of teams | various |
| Most recent champion(s) |
 Turkey (2nd 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.
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 was going to do so again in 2016.
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.
^ – There were only two teams registered so the tournament was not played as both had automatically earned promotion
^ – 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.
24 championships
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Wikipedia