Azer Mirtagavi First CSWC Champion in Uzbekistan

So came the time for Uzbekistan to make its debut on the Cigar Smoking World Championship circuit, and it was a hot one. The thermometer read 43 degrees Celsius when their first national qualifier ever was hosted by the official distributor of Oliva cigars, Uztobacco, in the beautiful restaurant Chaychona in Tashkent. But just because it was the premier, doesn’t mean the people of Uzbekistan haven’t tried out slow smoking before.

“This has become a new trend in a country where cigar culture has been developing at a breakneck pace for the last few years,” CSWC organizer and judge, Yevgeniy Zhidkov, says. “Cigars are sold in more than 30 Uztobacco stores across the country, a few days before the tournament the country’s first La Casa del Habano opened and Davidoff of Geneva is expected to open soon. So the participants of the tournament, even those taking part in it for the first time, knew the rules quite well and only asked the judge for details.”

When it’s hot, you want to take it slow, and that’s exactly what the competitors did. About half the participants finished close to the one-hour mark, but in the end Azer Mirtagavi got his revenge after having been outsmoked by almost two hours by Anastasia Arsenova in one of the pre-qualifiers in Kazakhstan. This was his first title ever after many attempts in both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

Behind him Vladislav Yankimov came in second at 1 hour 29 minutes and 4 seconds. In third place Artur Vartanyan reached 56 minutes and 57 seconds.

Probably fired up from being crowned the first national slow smoking champion of Uzbekistan, Mirtagavi went on to improve his time at the final event in Kazakhstan as well. 2 hours 10 minutes and 10 seconds actually would’ve put him on the top of the podium there as well, had he not already won the title in its neighboring country to the south.

“I am really happy with this victory, and I thank the organizers for taking the tournament to Uzbekistan too,” Mirtagavi says. “The new cigar is very interesting to smoke, and it has a very pleasant taste and aroma. I will continue to study it, and of course I hope to compete for a worthy place at the World Championship grand final in Split!

1. Azer Mirtagavi 1:42:44
2. Vladislav Yankimov 1:29:04
3. Artur Vartanyan 00:56:57