British Newcomer CSWC World Champion

The visitors, contestants and everyone else at the Cigar Smoking World Championship’s grand finale in Dubrovnik this weekend was in for an enormous surprise. Among all the seasoned top tens in the competition, the title of World Champion instead went to a Brit for the first time. Not to the current and multiple national champion Etan Patel, who’s been a contender for years, but to a complete newcomer.

“People say this is one of the most exciting finals ever,” CSWC founder Marko Bilic says. “It was proof that this is not just a show for the veterans. Just like other sports, there’s room for surprises. In fact, George Stansfield actually smoked his first cigar one year ago.”

Obviously he had a knack for slow smoking. After winning one of the British pre-qualifiers, he ended up second in the national championship, behind Etan Patel, and his performance earned him a wild card to the grand finale. Behind Stansfield, it was a bit more dramatic when both Marian Nedelea from Italy and Ivan Kristo from Croatia lost a possible spot on the podium after burning their rings. Hayato Mukaigawa from Japan, Brooklyn Hanks from the US, Tomasz Zol from Poland, Mikael “Zeke” Zander from Sweden and the 2021 world champion, Henrik Kristensson from Sweden also dropped in the rankings for the same reason.

“Nedelea made the biggest mistake of his CSWC career when he took one more puff,” Bilic says. “After a review it was revealed that this puff burnt the ring with about half a millimeter, causing him a 15 minute penalty. Suddenly he fell out of the top three.”

This was actually a year of many unexpected early exits. After just five minutes, the winner of Kazakhstan, Igor Titievsky, was out. 22 minutes later both aforementioned Etan Patel and the winner of Reunion, Sabrina Fontaine-Monetti, had to concede. Mikael “Zeke” Zander exited the competition after just over an hour and three-time world champion, Hauke Walter from Germany, was out after 1 hour and 13 minutes. Even before the two-hour mark, they were subsequently followed by names like Anastasia Arsenova, Igor Kovacic and Peter Novysedlák.

In the end, Stansfield’s winning time was 2 hours, 32 minutes and 50 seconds, a decent time with the new Oliva competition cigar. Behind him, one of the veterans, Germany’s Oliver Steinhäuser, claimed second place at 2 hours 28 minutes and 57 seconds and third place went to one of the main favorites, Drew Emch from the US. He came in at 2 hours 13 minutes and 7 seconds. Outside the podium, world record holder Klaudia Ide from Poland finished fourth and Marian Nedelea fifth.

“This proves that the rule of burning of the ring is one of the most exciting rules,” Bilic concludes. “This year, it changed the outcome in a big way, so it was a beautiful exhibition of the rule as well as the responsibility of the judges, because afterwards there was a big debate, of course. All the judges gathered around and checked the cigars to make a final decision.”

The CSWC grand finale Top 10

1. George Stansfield: 2:32:50
2. Oliver Steinhäuser: 2:28:57
3. Drew Emch: 2:13:07
4. Klaudia Ide: 2:11:43
5. Marian Nedelea: 2:11:00
6. Nvar J.M.: 2:09:27
7. Thorsten Ebers: 2:08:32
8. Marco Pareijn: 2:03:05
9. Ivan Kristo: 2:02:02
10. Marcin Sakowski: 1:57:43