{"id":64975,"date":"2023-09-10T10:23:56","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T08:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/?p=64975"},"modified":"2023-09-10T10:23:56","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T08:23:56","slug":"german-triumph-at-live-streamed-slow-smoking-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/german-triumph-at-live-streamed-slow-smoking-final\/","title":{"rendered":"German Triumph at Live Streamed Slow Smoking Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rise of even more nations in slow smoking. That\u2019s one of the things Marko Bilic, founder of the Cigar Smoking World Championship (CSWC), was most excited about after the smoke from the grand final had settled. Countries like Poland, Germany, Sweden and the US have long been dominant, but this year a few new ones showed prominence.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially Italy and Norway, but also Spain, did very well,\u201d he says. \u201cMarian Nadella from Italy broke his and the Italian record when he became the first Italian to smoke for more than two hours, for instance. And Tormod Skarmaas from Norway surprised everyone when he smoked for more than three hours in the first CSWC qualifier of the season. At the final he proved it wasn\u2019t a one-time thing when he came in 5<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The final in Split offered both excitement and surprises as usual. The biggest upset occurred after a little more than an hour, when suddenly last year\u2019s winner Borys Szkodzik was out.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been his year,\u201d Bilic says. \u201cHe didn\u2019t do that well in the qualification round either, but from what people say he\u2019s happy with the championship title he\u2019s got. His goal now is the world record, but that\u2019s just what I\u2019ve heard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead it came down to Hauke Walter from Germany and Andrej Leontijev, a Russian competing under the flag of Belarus. The latter one was flying under the radar until the very end.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was just me and Anastasia Arsenova, who was sitting at my table, left,\u201d Walter says. \u201cSuddenly the judge Pierre Gustavsson told me there\u2019s another guy left, at a different table.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Not even Bilic knew he was still in the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI might have given him an advantage since I was the commentator and I was fully focused on the table with Hauke and Anastasia,\u201d he laughs. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t as much noise around him, so maybe he was able to focus better without that stress, but that\u2019s the charm of any sport.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the end it wasn\u2019t enough though. Arsenova, who\u2019s also Russian but competing under the flag of Kazakhstan, was eliminated right after having passed three hours, and 24 minutes later Leontijev\u2019s cigar burnt out, making Walter the third person ever to win a second title. Only Oleg Pedan and Alexander Shagai from Russia have managed this before. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFive years ago it took me the whole day to understand what actually happened,\u201d Walter says. \u201cThis time I was able enjoy the win right away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For the first time ever, all of this was broadcasted live, giving those who weren\u2019t able to make it to Croatia a chance to be part of the excitement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had at least 10,000 viewers,\u201d Bilic says proudly. \u201cWe had people sending us pictures from cigar clubs all over the world organizing viewing parties like they would with any other sport. This isn\u2019t just a huge step for Cigar Smoking World Championship, but for the cigar culture overall. Next year it will be even better. I promise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Hauke Walter, Germany 3:28:07
\n<\/span>2.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Andrej Leontijev, Belarus 3:25:10
\n<\/span>3.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Anastasia Arsenova, Kazakhstan 3:01:26
\n<\/span>4.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Henrik Kristensson, Sweden 2:56:18
\n<\/span>5.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Tormod Skarmaas, Norway 2:49:50
\n<\/span>6.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Klaudia Ide, Poland 2:48:44
\n<\/span>7.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Marcin Sakowski, Poland 2:44:06
\n<\/span>8.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Daniel Friedenthal, Austria 2:37:04
\n<\/span>9.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Marian Nedela, Italy 2:35:15
\n<\/span>10.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Drew Emch 2:25:59<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

German Triumph at Live Streamed Slow Smoking Final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":64976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[49,63,44],"tags":[5366],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64978,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64975\/revisions\/64978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}