nine nations to have hosted the tournament, only Australia and Cuba have won as hosts, combining for five tournament wins from five times hosted. (Cuba in 1979, 1987, 1995 and 2002, Australia in 1999.) Australia first participated in the tournament at the 1981 Intercontinental Cup, managing only one win out of their seven games, finishing 8th. Missing the 1983 Intercontinental Cup, they returned in 1985 to repeat their previous performance: 1 win, 8th-place finish. They would not reappear at the tournament until 1993 where they improved to a 5–4 record to finish in 6th position. Australia's first medal performance at the Intercontinental Cup (and their first medal at a world tournament) was at the 1997 tournament. In their best performance through the preliminary round, they put together a 6–1 record losing only to eventual silver-medalists Cuba, and beating eventual gold-medalists Japan. They lost to Japan in the semi-final, but beat the United States for the second time in the tournament to secure the bronze. Australia also competed in the most recent tournament in 2006. There they finished in 5th position, compiling a 3–4 record. This is likely to be the last edition of the tournament for the foreseeable future. Continental tournaments Australia is the second of only two nations to have participated in IBAF-sanctioned continental tournaments for more than one continent: the Asian Baseball Championship between 1971 and 1993, and the Oceania Baseball Championship since 2003. The first nation to achieve this was Guam, who competed in the Asian tournament within the same timeframe as Australia, though they were involved in the first Oceania tournament in 1999. Asian Baseball Championship Australia is one of thirteen nations to have participated in the Asian Baseball Championship since the tournament was first held in 1954. The last time they contested the championship was in 1993, as a result of joining the newly formed Baseball Confederation of Oceania. Though their best result was a bronze medal in the 1975, the only teams to consistently finish ahead of Australia were Japan, South Korea and Chinese Taipei—the top three teams in Asia, and all in the top five in the world. Oceania Baseball Championship Though scheduled to participate on three separate occasions, Australia has only contested the Oceania Baseball Championship once in 2003. The two other times, Australia's scheduled opponents—Guam in 2004 and New Zealand in 2007—withdrew from competition in the lead up to each series,