The 2003

IIHF Women's World Championships The IIHF Women's World Championship is the premier international women's tournament in ice hockey. It is governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The official world competition was first held in 1990, with four more champions ...

was set to be held in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, from April 4–9, 2003. However, it was cancelled due to the global SARS oubreak. Only the top division event was cancelled, as the lower divisions still had their tournaments. The teams from Russia, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland were already in China, while the American and Finnish teams were awaiting word on whether they should travel when the IIHF indicated that the Championships were to be postponed or even cancelled. The move to cancel was a logical one, as the Canadians were under a government order not to travel at all at that time.Summary from passionhockey.com
/ref> The Division I tournament was held in

Ventspils Ventspils () is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It is situated on the Venta River and ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

from March 9 to 15. The Division II tournament was held in

Lecco Lecco (, , ; ) is a city of approximately 47,000 inhabitants in Lombardy, Northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como (the branch is named ''Branch of Lecco'' / ''Ramo di Lecco''). The Bergamasqu ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

from March 31 to April 6.

Top Division

Postponed, then cancelled. Groups for this division were seeded for 2004 based on the 2003

IIHF World Ranking The IIHF World Ranking is a ranking of the performance of the national ice hockey teams of member countries of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It is based on a formula giving points for each team's placings at IIHF-sanctioned tour ...

instead of the normal practise of using their most recent finish.

Division I

The Division I tournament was held in

from March 9 to 15. ''Japan was promoted to the 2004 IIHF Women's World Championship.''

Statistics

Scoring leaders

Goaltending leaders

Division II

Division II tournament was held in

from March 31 to April 6. ''Norway is promoted to the 2004 Division I tournament.''

Statistics

Scoring leaders

Goaltending leaders

Division III

The Division III tournament was held in

Maribor Maribor ( , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is the seat of the ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

from March 25 to 31. ''Australia is promoted to the 2004 Division II tournament.''

Statistics

Scoring leaders

Goaltending leaders

References

External links

IIHF index for all 2003 tournaments

Summary from the Women's Hockey Net

{{Women's ice hockey tournaments

World The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

International ice hockey competitions hosted by Italy International ice hockey competitions hosted by Latvia International ice hockey competitions hosted by Slovenia IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship 2002–03 in Italian ice hockey

Women's ice hockey competitions in Italy April 2003 sports events in Europe Sport in Ventspils Lecco Sport in Maribor