The 1999 World Netball Championships was the tenth staging of the World Netball Championships, the premier tournament in international netball which is held every four years. The 1999 tournament was held in Christchurch, New Zealand from 21 September to 2 October 1999 and was contested by 26 teams with three of those teams debuting in the tournament. All matches were held at the Westpac Arena. Fourteen teams entered the preliminary round with four teams qualifying to the main round where they were joined by the top twelve teams from the previous tournament. The main round saw sixteen teams remaining, be split into two groups of eight with the top four qualifying to the quarter-finals while the remaining eight played in classification matches for 9th–16th placings. After Australia and New Zealand defeated England and Jamaica in the semi-finals, the two teams met in a repeat of the 1995 final. Australia would defended the title and claimed their eighth world championship by defeating New Zealand in the final on a final-second shot by Sharelle McMahon, after coming back from six goals down at three-quarter time. England claimed the bronze medal, defeating Jamaica by fourteen goals.
Preliminary rounds
Over the first two days of competition, sixteen teams competed in two round of knockout matches for four remaining spots in the main competition, the remaining twelve teams entered the consolation round. Pakistan and Botswana were also meant to compete in the tournament but had to withdrew.
Round 1
The opening day of the World Championships started with wins for six teams with Wales securing the biggest win of the day with a 82–13 romp over Vanuatu which saw Mair Evans scoring 57 goals. For Scotland, they had nervous start in their match against the Cayman Islands with Scotland only leading by three goals at the half time break. But a switch to bring in Gail Higgins into goal attack saw the Scots win by 29 goals. Zambia had the closest match of the opening day with their match over Papua New Guinea having a margin of only two goals in what was a see-saw match. There was also wins for Fiji, Tonga and Malaysia who opened their 1999 campaign with a win. ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Round 2
Day two of the 1999 edition saw the remaining eight teams in the preliminary round ply in four matches to determine the final four spots in the top 16. In the biggest victory of the day, Fiji defeated Zambia by twenty nine goals off the back of a blistering start while fellow Pacific neighbours Tonga lost their second round match to Northern Ireland after conceding sixteen goals in the third quarter while only scoring five. Wales built a solid lead in the first two quarter finals to overcome Scotland by eighteen goals despite Scotland winning the final quarter. The final match of the preliminary round saw Singapore sealed a twenty-two goal victory over Malaysia off the back of former Australian B goal-shooter Jocelyn Bryant as she scored 44 goals from 49 attempts. ---- ---- ----
