At the end of May Mikael “Zeke” Zander became Swedish slow smoking champion for the third time. When Germany had its qualification round former world champion Hauke Walter one-upped him and took his fourth national title, in a row none the less.
This year’s the competition was held at the cigar shop and lounge Zigarren Welt in Cologne and several of the top German smokers were present, including Patricia Benden, and Martina Klainlagel.
At the one-hour mark Walter and Benden were head to head with Klainlagel right behind alongside a few others. With two hours gone Walter was alone. Klainlagel finished third at 1 hour 51 minutes and 18 seconds and Benden came in second at 1 hour 58 minutes 12 seconds. After that Walter went on a one hour plus solo run, yet he didn’t manage to beat last year’s winning time of 3 hours 19 minutes and 2 seconds. This time he finished at 3 hours 1 minute and 30 seconds. Still, not too bad.
“Hauke has once again proven to be one of the best smokers of all time,” CSWC founder Marko Bilic says. “He is a top competitor and this year I expect him to provide his finest performance yet. He is composed, focused, and eager to be crowned world champion once again.”
Someone who most probably won’t be world champion is Bilic himself. For the first time in ten years he participated as a non competing guest smoker. He lasted 12 minutes.
1. Hauke Walter 3:01:30
2. Patricia Benden 1:58:12
3. Martina Klainlagel 1:51:18
