103 Krystal Hamburgers in 8 Minutes - Amazing Feat of Competitive Eating

If Americans are anything, they are competitive. Joey Chestnut again rules the eating world with the Krystal Hamburger eating championship. Noticeably absent is the great Kobayashi who downed 98 last year.
Here are the official results, no reversals of fortune that I noticed.

The official results are as follows:

Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, San Jose, CA - 103
“Humble Bob” Shoudt - Philadelphia, Pa. - 95
Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti, Chicago, Ill. - 94
Tim “Eater X” Janus, New York, NY -74
Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, Alexandria, Va. - 58
Rich “The Locust” LeFevre, Henderson, Nev. - 53
Hall “Hoover” Hunt - Jacksonville, Fla. - 52
Chip “The Phenom” Simpson - BIrmingham, Ala. - 49
Erik “The Red” Denmark, Seattle, Wash. - 45
“Crazy Legs” Conti - New York, N.Y. - 45
Juliet Lee, Germantown, Md. - 44
Tim “Gravy” Brown, Chicago, Ill. - 38
Allen “Shredder” Goldstein, Plainview, N.Y. - 34

Competitive Eating - The Black Widow Scarfs 173 Chicken Wings in 12 minutes

Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas won the latest competitive eating contest by scarfing 173 wings in 12 minutes.  She beat 12 huge guys, of which none were Kobayashi or Joey Chestnut.

Joey Chestnut, new eating star, new stomach limits, Kobayashi killer

Joey Chestnut took the competitive eating championship back to the USA with a record 66 hotdogs in 12 minutes, defeating Kobayashi by 3 dogs.  It’s hard to say whether this was an upset as Chestnut had set the most current record a few months back with 59.5 hotdogs to surpass Kobayashi’s record of 53.5 in last years July 4th eat off.

Nothing sparks interest in a story like controversy.  Days before the contest, Kobayashi had a wisdom tooth removed, or had jaw arthritis or some jaw ailment.  I will say that ESPN showed a tooth on TV claiming it was his.  Nevertheless, he showed up and beat his own personal best by 10 dogs in a 2nd place effort, tying Chestnut a few times during the match, but never taking the overall lead.   So was he sandbagging, 63 dogs implies that he was either a real champion playing through pain, or was setting up the eventual loss to Chestnut via an injury claim.  Only he knows.

In another piece of controversy, Kobayashi appeared to have a reversal of fortune, which should have automatically disqualified him, but he was still credited with 2nd place and the 63 dog count.  It was the first televised reversal that I’m aware of.  I had wanted to see it, and it happened,but to have the greatest eater in history do it was a downer.

Can’t wait till next year.

Shocking News in the Sports World: New Hot Dog eating record set, Kobayashi (Potentially) out of Coney Island Championship

Competitive eating champion Takeru (The Tsunami) Kobayashi has suffered a jaw injury that could keep him out of the July 4th Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Championship. Kobayashi has suffered a jaw injury during training that according to him only allows him to open his mouth the width of a finger. The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE)reported the same on June 25th.

Better than Tiger Woods in Golf, Michael Schumacher in Formula 1, Roger Federer in Tennis, Takeru Kobayashi has dominated the world of competitive eating like few athletes have dominated their sport. Recently however, his hot dog record was surpassed by American Joey Chestnut with an astounding 59.5 hot dogs.

This is a real disapointment for me personally as watching this is one of the most entertaining 12 minutes of human adventure that you could want. Combine that with the nature of humans bent towards competition, taking sides over the competitors and pulling for your man, this year could have been a show down of magnitude. The competitors could have forced each other over the once unheard of 60 hot dog barrier.

Word on the street (ok, undocumented….just heard by me on the radio) was that Kobayashi was either sandbagging or didn’t want to lose given the appearance fee’s and sponsor money at stake. I’ll give him the benefit of doubt that he’s really injured this time, but he better face Chestnut soon or I’ll have my doubts.

If he does show up, the drama of Kobayashi being an underdog for the first time would really add drama.

I also hope for a reversal of fortune this year, just for the pageantry of the sport to be on display.