Jordan, Bosnia, Uzbekistan, China, Hungary, Ireland, Hong Kong, Japan and now Israel. They have all made their debut on the Cigar Smoking World Championship this year, and the outcome and experience has been varied, to say the least. In Uzbekistan the thermometer read 43 degrees Celsius. In Japan the participants got to eat food at the organizer’s family restaurant, cooked by his own mother. The qualifier in Hungary was one of the biggest ones on the circuit and in Jordan no less than five people made it to the top 20 list at the time. Even though the Jordan champion, Abdul-Hadi Hammoudeh, smoked for more than two hours, he couldn’t hang on that spot to the end, unlike the winner in Bosnia. While most of the winning performances were around an hour and a half, Dragan Blaž’s time was the best out of the debuting nations. 2 hours and 28 minutes was enough for 19th place on the list, and with 2 hours 22 minutes and 28 seconds, runner-up Sladjana Stjepić wasn’t far from making it either. They can both probably be seen as contenders to the world champion title on Saturday.
Israel’s first CSWC qualifier ever started with a semifinal in July at the Wine & Tobacco House in Rishon LeZion, just south of Tel Aviv. A few weeks later the national final was held at HarMoni Lounge in Tel Aviv.
“It was a resounding success,” Gady Levy, organizer and owner of HarMoni Lounge , says. “The event brought together cigar enthusiasts for an extraordinary morning of culture, cigars, and the art of smoking and we look forward to seeing our local cigar community continue to grow and thrive in future events.”
At the end of the day, Idan Baron became the first Israeli slow smoking champion in history. With 1 hour and 17 minutes he was ten minutes ahead of runner-up, Rachela Shafir. There is no information about third place.
- Idan Baron 1:17:00
- Rachela Shafir 1:07:00
