'Tsunami' holds on to hot dog title

AP / Ananova ^ | 07/05/2003

[dighton]

Japan’s champion hot dog eater has claimed his third consecutive championship win.

Takeru ‘Tsunami’ Kobayashi out-gorged competitors more than twice his size in the Nathan’s Famous Coney Island contest, downing 44 and a half dogs in just 12 minutes.

Kobayashi downed his frankfurters at the rate of one every 16 seconds in a display of gastronomic supremacy.

Once again his peers were left to fight for second place. Runner-up Ed ‘Cookie’ Jarvis trailed the champion by no fewer than 14 hot dogs.

The diminuitive 145-pound Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, employed his trademark ‘Solomon method’ - snapping the dogs in half before swallowing them - to outclass the other 19 contestants.

But he later expressed his disappointment at failing to beat his own record of 50 and a half.

“I feel sad I didn’t break it,” he said through an interpreter. “I came here to set the record.”

George Shea, spokesman for the event, couldn’t believe that Kobayashi was anything but proud of his performance.

“I’m shocked anybody would characterise this as anything short of stupendous. This is an athlete who still remains at another level than the rest of the competition.”

Celebrity contestant William ‘The Refrigerator’ Perry failed to make any impression on the field.

The 410-pound former NFL star dropped out of the competition after just five minutes, with only four hot dogs finished.

[dighton]

Mainichi Shimbun

[MinuteGal]

These fatso hot dog eaters are ATHLETES?

When will cramming wieners into one's mouth become an Olympic event?

Leni

[tet68]

Years of training, special diets, coaches, and government
sponsorship, and you question their standing??

Now syncronized hot dog eating, that's another story.

[Bluntpoint]

Yeah sure, Japan subsidized weiner eaters and high foriegn weiner eater tarriffs by the Japanese are the only reason why we can't catch a break in the weiner eater olympics.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Did Monica win the Women's division?

[Bluntpoint]

Further, our government overtaxing weiner eaters and the heavy regulation of weiner eating has practically kill off any hope of ever reaching again the status of weiner eater superpower.

[milan]

When will cramming wieners into one's mouth become an Olympic event?Gay marriage has just become a reality. Unless our conservative politicians do something about it, it may literally become an olympic event.

[Bluntpoint]

She would of, but she is a spitter.

[Monty22]

"The 410-pound former NFL star dropped out of the competition after just five minutes, with only four hot dogs finished."

I can finish more than 4 in 5 minutes.. And I'm not that overweight.

This is the most shocking part of the whole disgusting story.

[Bluntpoint]

I heard the one gay guy at the event lost miserably. The balls kept hanging up on his chin.

[Sabertooth]

Did Monica win the Women's division?

Did she attempt to emply the Solomon Method on the Bent One?

[sine_nomine]

Where is the

barf alert?

[milan]

Funny...but disgusting.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Probably didn't have to. The Solomon method is only necessary to make the size manageable.

[ErnBatavia]

"Luke...why'd ya have to go and bet you could eat fifty??"

[bert]

A comical dilemma presented it's self yesterday.....

Fox News gave the Nathen's contest big play, even having a miniversion on Fox and Friends very early on. As the morning progressed, the story was pumped along with all the other news. The opening of the contest was shown along with run downs on many of the contestants.

And then disaster stuck...... George W Bush appeared on stage in Ohio. He gave a rousing speech an the world missed the conclusion of the hot dog eating contest.

I can only wonder what the lesser cable news channels reported live.

[I still care]

I saw an excellent special on Discovery called "Gut Busters" (my son and I couldn't believe our eyes) on eating as a competitive sport. It seems this is big business in Japan, with large cash prizes.

[hole_n_one]

See the last two paragraphs of the posted article.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

The Fridge lets us down again. Thanks Hole.

[america-rules]

The fridge can't win because he's too fat. They had a special on this on the food channel and fat people don't have enough room in their stomach to hold as much food. The Japanese guy who won last year (Same as this year) ate a 15" X 15" square of food. The fridge can only add about 7" X 7" of food because his fat pushes on his stomach.