Controversy at the Cigar Smoking World Championship!

[El Presidente]

 

Since swapping to Oliva as the supplier, smoking times were not what they use to be. However the worm has turned! 

 

What started with 60 competitors in Copenhagen in May and an uncertainty filled with curiosity about what the new Oliva competition cigar would bring to the table has now come to an end. The last results from the Cigar Smoking World Championship qualifiers have come in and the picture has gone from thrillingly unpredictable to… well, at least a little less unforeseeable when the participants at the grand finale take stage in Split tonight.

The first signs of the Oliva Mareva CSWC stirring things up were in Norway, about a week after Denmark’s qualifier. The seasoned three-hour smokers Tormod Skaaraas and Rolf Broch were about an hour short of their times from last year, and other examples followed. Three-time, as well as reigning, champion, Hauke Walter didn’t last longer than about 2 hours and 40 minutes at the German qualifier, for instance. It didn’t hinder him in taking home the title of national champion for the seventh time in a row, but the boat had been rocked.

 

CONTINUED

 

[JohnS]

Żołądkiewicz Becomes CSWC World Champion

 August 31, 2025 - Simon Lundh 

The king has fallen!

Hauke Walter from Germany won his first Cigar Smoking World Championship in 2018. Five years later he became historic as the first one to win twice, and last year he re-wrote the history books in two ways by being the first one to defend the title, and subsequently to win three championships. At the 2025 grand finale, which moved back to Split after a guest appearance in Dubrovnik last year, the streak came to an end, though.

There was a lot of talk about the new Oliva cigar and for how long the participants would be able to keep the ashes going. With fewer three-hour performances throughout the season than usual, a qualified guess would be less than that, and so it was. After 2 hours 38 minutes and 9 seconds, Walter had to admit defeat, leaving two smokers in the race. Surprisingly, none of them were Anastasia Arsenova, the record holder of the season with who smoked for 3 hours 42 minutes and 6 seconds in Kazakhstan, incidentally the fourth best time ever as well. She was out after just 1 hour 43 minutes and 49 seconds.

It wasn’t any of the other three-hour smokers from this year, like Oleg Pedan, Alexander Shagai, Sergey Galevsky or Mariusz Kowalczyk, wither, but it was still two familiar names; Tomasz Żołądkiewicz from Poland and Tormod Skaaraas from Norway.

“You just can’t rule him out,” I recently wrote about Skaaraas, although he only reached about two and half hours at the Norwegian qualifier, and Żołądkiewicz wasn’t exactly a dark horse, either. This double vice world champion and the first one ever to break three hours made his return to slow smoking this year, and he was just five minutes short of that magic milestone when he ended up second at the Polish equivalent.

For another six minutes they went head to head before Skaaraas’ cigar burnt out, leaving Żołądkiewicz alone to claim the title of world champion, thereby affirming Poland’s status as one of the absolute greats in the slow smoking world. After 2 hours 46 minutes and 11 seconds the deal was done. He decided not to risk it and put out his cigar, bringing back the trophy to Poland, three years after the victory of his countryman, Borys Szkodziak.

1.     Tomasz Żołądkiewicz POL 2:46:11
2.     Tormod Skaaras NOR 2:44:54
3.     Hauke Walter GER 2:38:09

Source: https://www.cigarjournal.com/zoladkiewicz-becomes-cswc-world-champion/

[westg]

Cigar torture championship if you ask me. I just dont get it. 🤔

[ha_banos]

I'll check in with David to see if there was any gossip. 😁

[Hoosh]

Has anybody here smoked any of the “official” cigars (the Oliva, RP, or Macanudo) for this competition? Thoughts if you have?