Mölkky world championships draw 2,300 players to Helsinki

More than 2,300 players from 23 countries are gathering in Helsinki this weekend for the official Mölkky World Championships, Yle reports. The event at the Käpylä sports park features more than 500 teams.

The number of participants surprised the organisers, although they had set high targets, said Vesa Känsäkangas of the organising association Terassimölkky.

Nearly 300 competitors are travelling from Japan, while France is sending 150 and Poland around 50. Teams are also taking part from countries including the United States, Australia, Hong Kong and Switzerland.

Mölkky has become especially popular in Japan, where Känsäkangas estimates that around one million people have played the game. He said Japanese teams train regularly and prepare carefully for competitions.

The championships are being held on a cricket field at Käpylä sports park, where organisers have built more than 1,000 Mölkky playing areas.

A competitive game with Finnish origins

Mölkky is a wooden throwing game invented in Lahti, Finland. The world championships have been held annually for more than 20 years, with Finland hosting the event every third year because the game was invented there.

Although Mölkky is widely known in Finland as a cottage game, its competitive side remains less familiar in the country. Abroad, it is treated as a serious sport.

Känsäkangas, who has competed since 2018, compares the competition to darts: players take the contest seriously, but in a relaxed environment. More than half of this year’s participants are competing for the first time, having found the event through marketing. Most of the teams are Finnish.

He considers long-established Finnish teams, as well as teams from Japan and France, among the favourites. Japan has hundreds of Mölkky clubs.

The game’s international spread has been supported by Tactic Games, which manufactures hundreds of thousands of sets each year and exports more than 95 per cent of them. Känsäkangas also said Japanese exchange students discovered the game in Finland and took it home, while France’s strong pétanque tradition may have helped players take up Mölkky.

Australian players call it finska

Competitive Mölkky is still relatively small in Australia, but interest is growing, said Sydney-based Tom O’Sullivan, who is competing with his team Finskaroos. The team’s name is modelled on the Australian football team Socceroos.

In Australia, the game is known as finska and is a slightly modified version of traditional Finnish Mölkky.

Finskaroos will play three group-stage matches on Friday and four on Saturday morning. O’Sullivan said the team wants to win and perform well at its level, while accepting that it may not progress as far as hoped.

He said the game combines skill and strategy with an element of luck, which keeps it enjoyable. For Känsäkangas, the strongest attraction is the sense of community.

“Everyone is welcome here. We play in good spirits, even though this is a world-class competition,” he said.

The tournament continues until Sunday, when this year’s winning team will be decided.