In a short series, IFAF looks back at some of the highlights and stories that emerged from the 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Finland at the end of August. Here the focus is on stats and numbers from the men’s tournament.

23,816 passing yards in the playoff and placement rounds 989 of those passing yards came from Ivan Lopez of Spain with Benjamin Klever (Germany) throwing for only five fewer yards and Bart Foley (Australia) third overall with 928 passing yards.

17,267 passing yards in the group stages 680 of those passing yards came from the arm of Charlie Williams of Great Britain who threw for the most yards, a total that was just two yards more than Germany’s Benjamin Klever. Of Williams’ haul, 246 yards came against Germany along with 5 touchdowns in a 34-20 group C win.

473 – total touchdowns in the playoff and placement rounds Fabian Auerbach of Germany led the way with 11 receiving touchdowns, followed by three players all with 9 TD grabs: Spencer Brown (USA), Lyon Chia (Singapore) and Jason Jaen (Panama)

345 – total touchdowns in the group stages Tanguy Lominet of France led the way with 9 receiving touchdowns, followed by Luke Hegney (Australia), Christopher Cardona (Mexico), and Fabian Achenbach (Germany) who each took 7 receptions to the end zone.

446 – passing touchdowns in the playoff and placement rounds 22 – of those passing touchdowns came courtesy of Italy’s Luke Zahradka, which was one more than Avraham Farkas (Israel) and two more than Ivan Lopez (Spain).

311 – passing touchdowns in the group stages 18 – passing touchdowns by a single player explains why Rinato Mori of Japan wore number one: he was the top-ranked passer throwing a total of 18. Felix Wasshuber (Austria), Benjamin Klever (Germany) and Luke Zahradka (Italy) each threw 16 touchdown passes.

35 – receptions in the playoff and placement rounds… was the most recorded by one player as Micky Kyei topped that list, closely followed by Francois Rocheleau (Canada) with 33 yards, while Joshua Leventhal (Israel) and Fabian Auerbach (Germany) each totaled 32 yards.

27 – receptions in the group stages… was the most recorded by one player with Mexico’s Christopher Cardona reeling in one more grab than Inti Sellares (Argentina) and Micky Kyei (Finland).

1,543 – rushing yards in the playoff and placement rounds 105 – the most rushing yards… Ryosuke Matsuo of Japan covered the most yardage on the ground, while teammate Kosei Ito was fourth overall with 86 yards.

1,157 – rushing yards in the group stages 88 – the most rushing yards… Nobody ran the ball quite like Chile, who finished with a 1-2 record in the group stages and 1-3 in their placement games as Germán Orellana Morales of Chile topped all rushers.

27 – rushing touchdowns in the playoff and placement rounds 5 – rushing touchdowns by Japan’s Ryosuke Matsuo put him ahead of USA pair Darrel ‘Housh’ Doucette and Laderrick Smith, and Victor Balerramos who each had two such trips to the end zone.

14 – rushing touchdowns in the group stages Scoring on the ground was a rare event and multiple players each did so on one occasion.

20 – individual flag pulls in the playoff and placement rounds Leading the way were Connor Young Free of Australia and Seck Tamsir of Italy.

16 – individual flag pulls in the group stages France’s Romain Amiell and Italy’s Daniele Latorraca each had 16 pulls, closely followed by Aamir Brown (USA), Milos Kolibar (Serbia) and Harold Garibay (Mexico) with 12.

7 – individual sacks in the playoff and placement rounds Michael Better of the United States recorded the most sacks, with 7, followed by Michael Tover (Israel) and Oleksandr Bogach (Ukraine) with 4 each.

3 – individual sacks in the group stages

Michael Better of the United States recorded the most sacks, with 3, while multiple players recorded 2 each.

5 – individual interceptions in the playoff and placement rounds Jayden Paludan of Australia claimed 5 interceptions, just ahead of Petrilli Riccardo of Italy with 4.

And just for the record, there were… 60 – games played in the playoff and placement rounds 60.73 average points per game in the playoff and placement rounds 59.31 – average points per game in the group stages 45 – games played in the group stages 31 – men’s teams involved in the competition 2 – overtimes in the playoff and placement rounds 0 – overtimes in the group stages

Photo: Jari Turunen