For the second consecutive year, Finland won the gold medal at the 2000 IIHF A Pool World Under-18 Junior Championship. This tournament, which proved to be highly competitive and extremely exciting in last year's augural event, provided more of the same in front of great crowds in Switzerland.
The highly touted Russian squad breezed through all opposition en route to the final game against Finland. But despite a preliminary round loss to Russia, defending champion Finland regrouped and defeated their border rivals 3 - 1 to claim the title backed by a strong defensive effort.
Closely behind were the Swedes, winners of the bronze medal by virtue of their 7 - 1 victory over host Switzerland. The IIHF Directorate Awards went to Finland's Kari Lehtonen as Top Goaltender, Sweden's Magnus Hedlund for Top Defenseman and Egor Chastine of Russia took home Top Forward honours. The Belarussian national team struggled at this level and was relegated to the B Pool for the 2001 tournament.
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