The third World Championship took place in Norway from 14th to 21st May 2000. The towns of Drammen and Sarpsborg hosted the group stage, whereas the play-off matches were played in Oslo. The Swedes recorded their first golden hat-trick at this tournament, winning all their matches along the way. The Czechs failed to reach the play-offs for the second straight time.
Group A was dominated by the defending champions from Sweden. The battle for the second qualifying spot into the semifinals followed the exact same scenario like two years before. Norway again drew with Denmark and ended third due to their worse score.
In Group B, the Czechs sensationally drew with Finland 2-2. Before, they defeated Russia 5-1 and lost to Switzerland 2-3 in a very close match. Not even these good results and performances helped them reach the semifinals. Finland advanced from the first position, accompanied by Switzerland from the second.
The Czech Republic, therefore, again faced Norway in a 5th place game. Unfortunately, no vendetta took place and the Czechs didn’t succeed. The Norwegians won clearly 5-2 and consigned the Czechs to the 6th place.
The semifinals featured the same teams as two years ago, only swapped in the pairings. Sweden faced Switzerland, but didn’t let anyone thwart their plans to defend the World Championship title. They didn’t leave anything to chance in the match, thrashing their opponents 8-2.
The other semifinal featured Finland and Denmark. There were no doubts about the match favorite and no surprise happened here either. The Danes scored only once while conceding six times themselves and so Finland joined Sweden in the final pairing, which later became a rather traditional one.
Switzerland beat Denmark 4-2 in the 3rd place game. Following the silver medals from the previous championship they took bronze this time. They indeed started their journey through the World Championships in high style. To compare, the Czech team ended once on the 4th position and twice on the 6th position during the same period.
The final match between the defending champions from Sweden and their challengers from Finland was extremely tight with interesting score progress. Finland went into the lead, but their rivals later turned the score around to make it 4-1. The blue-and-whites managed to close the gap to one goal but the Swedes confirmed their 5-3 victory with a last-minute goal, recording their first golden hat-trick.
The Czechs could see a
small comfort for their disappointment in Radim Cepek’s very good final
standing in the individual statistics – he fought his way up to the 9th place
in the huge competition of Scandinavian floorball stars, just two points short
of the winning trio – Karppanen (Finland), Olofsson, and Hellgard (both
Sweden).
DAY 4: Group Stage Culminating, Czech Republic to Face Switzerland – 4.12.2018
Germany Saves Czechs by Beating Latvia, Nordic Powers Post Convincing Wins – 4.12.2018
Sweden Dominates Norway to Get Easy 9-1 Win – 3.12.2018
Estonia Beats Thailand 11-4 to End Group Stage Unbeaten – 3.12.2018
Great First Period Secures First Victory for Finland – 3.12.2018
Great Defense Gives Australia First Tournament Win over Poland – 3.12.2018
Data Analysis: Latvia vs Czech Republic 4:3 – 3.12.2018
Impressive Third Period Pushes Germany to First Win in Prague – 3.12.2018
Zubir‘s Two Goals Help Singapore Beat Japan in Front of 6,341 Spectators – 3.12.2018
Data Analysis: Finland vs Sweden 4:5 – 3.12.2018
DAY 3: Program Starts with Asian Battle, Fans to See Two Nordic Derbies – 3.12.2018
Latvia Stuns the Hosts, Slovakia and Switzerland on Scoring Surge – 3.12.2018
Estonia Wins Evening Thriller in Arena Sparta – 2.12.2018
First Tournament Surprise as Latvia Beats Czech Republic 4-3 – 2.12.2018
Battle between Canada and Singapore Ends in First Tournament Draw – 2.12.2018
Switzerland Outclasses Germany 13-1, Känzig Scores Four Goals – 2.12.2018
Japan Enters Tournament with 1-15 Loss against Slovakia – 2.12.2018
Norway Turns Score to Get First Tournament Win – 2.12.2018
Data Analysis: Germany vs Czech Republic 5:10 – 2.12.2018
DAY 2: Twelve Teams in Action, Czechs to Face Latvia – 2.12.2018