2003 World Youth Championship

The 2003 World Youth Championship was the 11th World Youth Championship. Held from August 8 to August 17, 2003, it took place in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

The USA (7-1) won its second title in a row, behind MVP Justin Bristow (.519, 11 RBI), overcoming the absence of Austin Jackson and Justin Upton, who stayed in the USA due to fears of SARS. Future major leaguers who made the trip included Danny Espinosa (.483, 10 R), Ike Davis (.464, 10 RBI, 1-0), Sean O'Sullivan (.379, 2 HR, 1-0) and Jeremy Hellickson (2-0, 0.00, 17 K in 14 IP). Don Freeman was the manager.

Taiwan (6-2) won the Silver Medal at home. The team included Kai-Wen Cheng, Kun-Sheng Lin, Hsien-Hsien Yang and De-Long Yu. They were managed by Wu-Hsiung Huang.

Cuba (5-2) outscored opponents 52-7 in going 3-0 in the first round, but lost a game to Taiwan in the second round and then dropped a 2-1 decision to Hellickson in the semifinals. They finished with the Bronze Medal, edging Australia 10-9 in the Bronze Medal game.

Australia (2-5) finished fourth, dropping all four games after round one.

South Korea was listed at 5th even though their 1-2 record was worse than Japan's 2-2; neither of those Asian clubs advanced to round two. The Czech Republic (1-3) was 7th, South Africa (0-4, with Justin Lazarus) 8th and Indonesia 9th (outscored 111-2 in going 0-3).

Source: 2004 Baseball Almanac