4th Best Time ever for Arsenova at CSWC Kazakhstan

After four years on the Cigar Smoking World Championship circuit, organizer and judge Yevgeniy Zhidkov is happy with the way things are going in Kazakhstan. Not only have they gone from one single event to four, the skill of the participants has improved greatly.

“On average, at least 10 participants at each of the tournaments smoke for at least an hour, and the best results are already approaching two hours of smoking,” he says.

This year there were three open tournaments before the final. About a hundred slow smokers tried their luck, or skill rather, in Aktau, Astana, Pavlodar and finally Almaty. Once again, last year’s runner-up at the grand final in Dubrovnik, Anastasia Arsenova, stole all the headlines. In 2024 she beat Azer Mirtagavi by a whopping 1 hour and 41 minutes. This year she didn’t just manage to reach the best time of the season, it even earned her a fourth place on the Top 20 list of all time.

It all happened at the tournament in Astana, and just like last year Mirtagavi was left helpless in second place.

“For a long time Mirtagavi was competing with Arsenova, but as he was unable to make it past the two-hour mark Arsenova smoked all alone for the next almost two hours,” Zhidkov says.

The final time was 3 hours 42 minutes and 6 seconds, only 11 minutes short of Klaudia Ide’s world record, set in 2023.

In Aktau, Elnur Tagies, came in at 1 hour 58 minutes and 35 seconds, the best ever time in this westernmost city in Kazakhstan. In Pavlodar Anton Domashniy won with 1 hour 31 minutes and 30 seconds, but neither of these people mentioned actually ended up on the podium at the final event in Almaty, most probably because Arsenova couldn’t make it.

However, when push came to shove, Igor Titievskiy took home the title, with the significantly more modest time 1 hour 29 minutes and 40 seconds. Second place went to Dzhavanshir Sharipovtook at 1 hour 18 minutes and 40 seconds while Daur Nigmatullayev came in third at 1 hour 16 minutes and 10 seconds.

Despite Titievskiy’s achievement, this year’s competition belonged to Arsenova, who proved yet again to be one of the favorites for the world champion title of slow smoking.

1. Igor Titievskiy 1:29:40.
2. Dzhavanshir Sharipovtook 1:18:40
3. Daur Nigmatullayev 1:16:10