Yesterday I Took Part in a Slow Smoke Contest and Now I'm Confused.

OK so yesterday I took part in my pipeclub's annual slow smoke competition being a total noob (I can hardly keep my pipe lit when smoking normally) and surprisingly, I didn't do half bad. I placed 12 out of 19 with a 40 minute time.
Now what I find confusing is this. We were given 3 grams of baccy and a pipe. It is my understanding that 3g generally last people right around those 40 minutes, yet I had to keep puffing and tamping fairly constantly to keep the thing lit, definitely much more often that the 2 or 3 seconds every ten to twenty seconds I've read about, almost continually really. When it went out I had smoked it almost to the bottom with a single light and prelight, a first for me.

Now people who are significantly more experienced and skilled than me (let's just say actually skilled and experienced) lasted a little less and most of them died out right around the 50 minute mark. I got a little bit of tonguenburn from smoking at that speed.

Should I take this as an indication that I'm smoking too quickly even if the tobacco is taking as long as it should to burn? Why do I have to keep puffing and tamping then?
This is the pipe we were given, a Stefano santabroglio, commissioned specifically for this event. It's a little heavy but I love the looks!

Thanks for the replies everyone!
Yeah the whole point of taking part was spending a nice evening with the friends from my local pipeclub. We also had dinner and a few drinks and it was great!
Rather that specifically about slow-smoking technique, my question is about smoking technique in general.
As I understand it, a normal, non-competitive smoker just smoking normally gets around 45 minutes out of a normal pipe, which should be right around 3g of tobacco. That is supposedly smoking it nice and relaxed, without having to puff and tamp continously to keep it lit.

Now if i got those 40 minutes (judging by the amount of dottle left after it went out, it would have burned for 45-50 minutes) It leads me to believe I wasn't smoking all that fast, but i know i was because i couldn't relax for a single second, had to keep puffing and tamping to keep it lit and i burned my tongue some. The SECOND I relaxed a bit the smoke waned and the pipe was out half a minute later.
Am I smoking too fast, or too slow? Is the pipe packed too tightly or too loosely?
If it was packed too loose, that would explain the short 40 minutes, but then the tobacco should burn almost freely and i wouldn't have had to keep puffin'n'tamping would I?
On the other hand, if the tobacco was too tight, that would explain why it was hard to keep lit and i had to keep going at it hard, but then the baccy should have burnt for longer wouldn't it?
I'm not trying to improve my competitive smoking technique here, just my technique in general since I'm a newbie and I still have real trouble keeping the pipe lit.
Oh well the event was really fun, even though I agree that competition goes against the very nature of pipe smoking, its just a nice excuse to get together with a few like-minded friends and spend a whole evening sharing a hobby. And I got a cool pipe out of it! Two actually, since there were enough prizes for all of the participants to get a pipe+tobacco tin price! I earned me a cool, small Amorelli Fertility and a tin of Dark Birdseye from Gawith&Hoggarth!