Cuban cigar roller breaks own world record

Record-setting Cuban cigar roller Jose Castelar has broken his own world record, rolling a cigar that measures nearly 100 metres, the media reported on Monday.

Castelar, five-time winner of a Guinness World Record, has smashed his previous record set in 2011 for an 81.80-metre-long cigar, after eight days of rolling, Xinhua news agency reported.

In an attempt to set his sixth world record, Castelar has used some 80 kg of tobacco leaves, but his greatest achievement may be that at the age of 71 he also cut the amount of time he needed to roll a more than 80-metre cigar by two days.

However, he faces his toughest task now: Wrapping the world's longest cigar in the fine tobacco leaves that conserve a cigar's shape.

"Once the wrapping leaves are prepared, he must perfectly place them so that they are as fitted and stretched as possible, to make his mega-cigar smokable," his main helper Rene Valdes Miller said.

As many as 100 people were helping Castelar complete the finished product, which was expected to get its final measurement by mid-week.

Cuba's most famous cigar roller has been rolling cigars for some 50 years at a factory that now serves as a museum.

--IANS

py/vt