Posted on 07/05/2005 5:43:01 AM PDT by beyond the sea
W NEW YORK - For the fifth straight year, it was a victory Takeru Kobayashi could truly relish. Kobayashi, 27, captured the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest Monday, gobbling a nauseating 49 dogs in 12 minutes — but missing his own world record of 53 1/2, set at last year's July Fourth competition.
The win means the coveted Mustard Yellow Belt will return to Japan for the ninth year out of the past 10. New Jersey's Steve Keiner, who won in 1999, is the only American to capture the title in the past decade.
Kobayashi, of Nagano, stands 5 feet 7 inches and weighs just 144 pounds.
The runner-up was Sonya Thomas of Alexandria, Va. — known as The Black Widow on the competitive-eating circuit — who set an American record by downing 37 hot dogs in the same 12 minutes.
Thomas, who manages a Burger King restaurant, separates the hot dog from the bun and eats them separately. She dips the bun in water to make it easier to swallow with less chewing.
"I want to be No. 1 in the world, so I practice," she told CNN shortly after the contest. "I'm working on more speed."
She said she was planning a light dinner — maybe a salad.
"My stomach doesn't hurt," she said, "but my jaw is tired."
Thomas, who weighs a remarkable 105 pounds, is a rising speed-eating star. Last December in Atlantic City, N.J., she finished off 89 meatballs — about six pounds' worth — in 12 minutes. And in August, she captured a lobster-eating contest in Maine by consuming 38 of the creatures in 12 minutes.
The hot dog contest takes place outside the original Nathan's in Coney Island. The contest was first held there in 1916.
Darn. Takeru ate a few more last year! He's losing it! ;-)
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This guy is truly amazing.
The Lance Armstrong of Hot Dog Eaters?..............
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Two guys immigrate to America. On their first day off the boat they are wandering around New York City seeing the sights. As lunch time approaches they decide they are hungry. They then come up to a street vendor selling hot dogs.
One says to the other in a shocked tone, "My God. Do they eat dogs in America?"
"I don't know!" says the other, equally appalled.
"Well," says the first, "we're going to be Americans, so we must do as they do."
They approach the vendor bravely. "Two hot dogs, please."
The vendor hands them their food in a pair of paper bags. The two immigrants sit on a park bench to eat their lunch. One looks inside his sack, hesitates and turns to his partner and says, "Uh, which part of the dog did you get?"
I bet all the starving people in the world, really appreciate our having these food-eating contests, and showing the whole world via satellite and media.
I'd lose those hot dogs pretty quick if I tried to do that. ;-)
Yeah, but how many of these starving people are watching food eating contests on TV?
LOL!!!!!
Probably not many, although they probably eat the newspapers after reading about them...
Irregardless of the reason, there are still lots of starving people....
I want to marry this woman.
Yes, but they don't outnumber the grammar-challenged. It's "regardless"--not irregardless.
Very frustrating. It just bothers me that our country seems to promote over-indulgence in lots of things, and then we wonder why peoples in other countries, think we are materialistic and over-indulgent...
I'm always thankful for online editors that keep those of us that so challenged, properly policed.
If they can't afford food, they shouldn't be spending money on television and newspapers!
Perhaps there is no food available, and they read/eat the newspapers, after finding them in the trash bins of those that can afford them.
You and 36 other guys?
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