The 2003 FIVB Women's World Cup was held from 1 to 15 November 2003 in Japan. Twelve women's national teams played in cities all over Japan for the right to a fast lane ticket into the 2004 Summer Olympics. Teams were made up as follows: hosts Japan, continental champions and vice-champions from Europe, Asia, NORCECA and South America, continental champion from Africa, and two wild-card teams nominated jointly by the FIVB and the

Japan Volleyball Association The Japan Volleyball Association (JVA) is the governing body for volleyball in Japan. It was founded in 1927, and has been a member of FIVB since 1951. It is also a member of the Asian Volleyball Confederation. The JVA is responsible for organ ...

. Teams played a single-round robin format (66 games overall), in two parallel groups (site A and site B). The women played in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...

, Toyama,

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous cit ...

, Sendai, and

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

Teams

* — Host * — African Champions * — Asian Champions * — European Champions * — NORCECA Champions * — South American Champions * — Asian bronze medalists * — European Vice-champions * — NORCECA Vice-champions * — South American Vice-champions * — Wild-card * — Wild-card

Squads

Results

All times are

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to ...

( UTC+09:00).

First round

Site A

Venue:

Yoyogi National Gymnasium Yoyogi National Gymnasium, officially is an indoor arena located at Yoyogi Park in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, which is famous for its suspension roof design. It was designed by Kenzo Tange and built between 1961 and 1964 to house swimming ...

Site B

Venue: Kagoshima Arena,

Second round

Site A

Venue:

Nagoya Rainbow Hall , formerly Nagoya Rainbow Hall, is an indoor sports arena located in Nagoya, Japan. From April 1, 2007, its name was changed to Nippon Gaishi Hall, to reflect the sponsorship of the NGK Insulators. The capacity of the arena is 10,000 people. The ...

Site B

Venue:

Sendai Gymnasium is an indoor sporting arena located in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. The capacity of the arena is 7,000. It hosted preliminary round games for the Basketball World Championship 2006, and is also the home arena of the Sendai 89ers of the Japan prof ...

, Sendai

Third round

Site A

Venue: Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center,

Site B

Venue:

Toyama City Gymnasium Toyama City Gymnasium is an indoor sporting arena located in Toyama, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on ...

, Toyama

Fourth round

Site A

Venue:

Namihaya Dome is an indoor sporting arena located in Kadoma city in the Osaka Prefecture of Japan. Construction was completed in early 1996. The primary architect was Mamoru Kawaguchi, founder of the firm Kawaguchi & Engineers. The dome is composed largel ...

, Kadoma

Site B

Venue:

Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium is an indoor sporting arena located in Namba, Osaka, Japan. It first opened in 1952 and the current building was constructed in 1987. It is the venue of a professional sumo tournament ( honbasho) held in March every year. The capacity of the ...

Final standing

Awards

* Most Valuable Player : Małgorzata Glinka * Best Scorer : Małgorzata Glinka * Best Spiker : Zhao Ruirui * Best Blocker : Valeska Menezes * Best Server : Zoila Barros * Best Receiver : Zhou Suhong * Best Libero :

Arlene Xavier Arlene de Queiroz Xavier (born December 20, 1969) is a volleyball player from Brazil. She represented her native country at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Xavier was named "Best Libero" at the FIVB World Grand Prix 2006 in Reggio Ca ...

* Best Setter : Fernanda Venturini * Special Award :

Yoshie Takeshita Yoshie Takeshita (竹下佳江 ''Takeshita Yoshie'', born March 18, 1978) was a Japanese volleyball player who played for JT Marvelous. She served as Head Coach of Japanese volleyball team Victorina Himeji. and now serves as Executive Adviser. ...

External links

FIVB 2003 World Cup
{{DEFAULTSORT:2003 Fivb Women's World Cup 2003 Women's Women's World Cup V V November 2003 sports events in Asia Women's volleyball in Japan