Lo First Borneo CSWC Champion

Malaysia has been a part of the Cigar Smoking World Championship circuit since 2019, and the competition has become so popular it now has two different qualifiers.

Up until now the national qualifiers have been held in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, but this year some cigar passionados on the island of Borneo decided to host their own time chaser.

“The event took place in The Club, the beautiful cigar lounge and bar at the Hilton Hotel,” organizer Mikhail Thiruevarsu says. “As one of the sponsors, Hilton offered the top three a two night stay at the hotel, but that wasn’t all. Every competitor and judge were welcomed with a traditional Sabahan necklace from colorful beads, commemorating the first CSWC event in Kota Kinabalu.”

Favorite to win was Yadie Dayana, two-time winner in Kuala Lumpur, author of the book “Indonesian Cigars for the world” and owner of the Dayana cigar brand as well as the Dayana lounges in Jakarta.

“While Indonesians gather at the Kuala Lumpur event in big numbers, Yadie, who last won in 2023, and his wife Putri were the only Indonesian competitors in Kota Kinabalu. There was also a competitor from Brunei, but most were local guys, all competing for the first time.”

It wasn’t to be Dayana’s night, though.
“Very early in the competition it became clear that he would experience fierce competition from Julian Lo,” the organizers continue. “Sitting all by himself after all the other competitors at his table dropped out, Julian stayed cool as a cucumber. All dressed in black, stoic look on his face and a bottle of whisky in front of him, he stayed focused and didn’t let anybody, or anything break his concentration. All the while, Yadie had some construction problems as his cigar was canoeing.”
The last men standing were Lo, Dayana and John Fernandez, with the latter dropping out after 1 hour 20 minutes and 30 seconds. 13 minutes later, Dayana was done for the night. As he was close to burning the ring, he had to call it quits, leaving Lo to wrap things up on his own. He managed to squeeze out another seven minutes before deciding to stop at 1 hour 40 minutes and 40 seconds in order to avoid possible penalty minutes.

1. Julian Lo 1:40:40
2. Yadie Dayana 1:33:20
3. John Fernandez 1:20.30