Once again, the 19 century mansion, KK fon Stricka villa in Riga, posed as battle stage when the Latvian qualifier for the Cigar Smoking World Championship took place in the beginning of June. Participants from five countries, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Czech Republic fought it out during almost two hours before the winner was crowned. Unlike the settings, the top three was entirely new, though, and it was a close call between Oleg Roschin from Riga Cigar Club and Harri Kalliokoski from Kirja Club in Finland. In the end the former came out on top. Roschin finished at 1 hour and 55 minutes, exactly five minutes longer than Kallikoski.
“The two were in the lead during the entire competition and remained close until the very end,” organizer Dmitry Smirnov says. “When Kallikoski went out a few millimeters away from the ring Roschin was able to get a comfortable win.” Third place went to Elnur Rakhimov from Riga Cigar Club. Fun fact, Roschin’s time was the same as Alexander Ostrovskiy’s winning time from last year, to the second.
1. Oleg Roschin 1:55:00
2. Harri Kalliokoski 1:50:00
3. Elnur Rakhimov 1:34:05
