Cigar Smoking World Championship 2016 – The Results

Swiss entrepreneur Mirko Giotto (pictured with the 2015 world champion Oleg Pedan from Russia) is the 2016 world champion in slow cigar smoking. At the Cigar Smoking World Championship (CSWC) in Split/Croatia, Mr Giotto finished his competition cigar (the Macanudo Inspirado Mareva, 5 1/8 x 42 | 130 x 16,7) after 2 hours, 32 minutes and 8 seconds. Second was Tomasz Zotadkiewicz from Poland (2:27:01) and on third place Darren Cioffi (USA; 2:26:10), the holder of the current world record.
88 competitors from 23 countries gathered in Split for the 7^th Cigar Smoking World Championship from September 2–4, 2016 for a fun and smoke filled weekend. Among them were 11 participants from the United States, 10 from Russia, 8 from Germany and 5 from Austria. Marko Bilic, the founder of the competition and president of the Mareva Cigar Club in Split has put his hometown in the spotlight of the cigar world, once again. With more than a dozen qualification tournaments across Europe and the USA, Mr. Bilic organizes one of the most important cigar events with worldwide recognition and has been awarded the Cigar Trophy “Ambassador” in 2015 for his outstanding work.

Global brands like Pernod-Ricard have sent a high ranking official to observe the finals in Split: Alexandr Ghorokovskiy, Havana Club Iconica Collection Brand Manager. Chivas Regal was the official whisky; torcedor Christian Aybar from the General Cigar factory in the Dominican Republic rolled Macanudo Inspirado cigars for the guests; Swiss watch maker Cuervo y Sobrinos sponsored prizes for the winners; Bespoke Cigars sponsored the Welcome Night and renowned cigar companies like Principle Cigars, Royal Danish Cigars, Don Tomás, CAO and Vegas de Santiago were among the generous sponsors along with Croatian wine makers like Ilički Podrumi, Rizman, Matosevič and Vukoje.

The program for the 2017 Cigar Smoking World Championship series will be announced early next year.