From IFOCE.com:

1. Ron Koch, 36 burgers
2T. Hall Hunt, 26 burgers
2T. unnamed Floridian, 26 burgers

Ron Koch’s total is the 5th best performance so far, behind only Sonya Thomas, Joey Chestnut, Tim Janus and Badlands Booker.

With two qualifying contests remaining, top ranked IFOCE members who have yet to qualify include Cookie Jarvis and Patrick Bertoletti.

(From IFOCE.com) Sonya Thomas showed absolutely no effects from a two month contest hiatus at the DC (Bethesda, MD) Verizon Voicewing Buffalo Wing qualifier. Her total of 5.75 pounds beat runner up Tim Janus’ amount by a pound and 3 quarters. “Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz came in third. Sonya’s result is over a pound better than nemesis Joey Chestnut’s tally in Seattle from the start of October. Chip Simpson, who made his debut last week winning the Birmingham Krystal qualifier, competed along with “Crazy Legs” Conti, Don “Moses” Lerman, “Beautiful” Brian Seiken and Allan Goldstein. The top 5 finishers are eligible to compete in the finals to be held in Boston.

WTop radio has an article about the contest along with 4 pictures.

Added 11/1 12:59 am The DC Examiner has a contest writeup. The Examiner also did an interview with Sonya earlier in October.

Updated 10/31 9:25 AM “Beautiful” Brian Seiken, who competed, has a contest writeup on his website with near-complete results, pictures, and a reason why Sonya Thomas still has to worry about thrown food items despite being banned from the Wing Bowl.

Results from that article:

1. Sonya Thomas, 5.75 lb
2. Tim “Eater X” Janus, 4.0 lb
3. “Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz, 3.85 lb
4T. “Big” Brian Subich, 3.2 lb
4T. Chip Simpson, 3.2 lb
6. “Crazy Legs” Conti, 2.9 lb.
7T. “Beautiful” Brian Seiken, 2lb.
7T. Alan Goldsten, 2lb.

Pat (from Moonachie) Philbin missed due to car problems, Don “Moses” Lerman struggled due to lack of a chair.

The top five finishers advance to the finals in Boston. Crazy Legs (who has adopted Tim Janus’ face painting) will also make the finals due to Kevin Lipsitz missing the finals due to a previous engagement.

Fixed 11/01 12:20 am made correction that Pat Philbin missed due to car trouble and not Brian Subich (Thanks Brian Subich)

Several sellers have put Wing Bowl tickets up for sale on ebay. They are asking, and generally getting a good deal more than the $5 face value.

(from IFOCE.com) Jed Donahue, who won the grilled cheese contest at the Southern California Fair, notched his second victory in a little over two weeks at the 84 Lumber Baked Bean contest at Chandler Arizona, eating 84 ounces of baked beans in 1 minute and 45 seconds. Rich LeFevre finished in second place with a time of 1:59.

Justin Mih, a student at UC-Irvine and runner up to Donahue in grilled cheese, came in 3rd with a time of 3:30 placing him on the roster of impressive collegiate rookies populated by Joey Chestnut, Patrick Bertoletti and Hall Hunt.

The East Valley Tribune has an article about competitive eating in general which mentions the contest.

gazette.net has a preview of Saturday’s Verizon voicewing qualifier which will be held in Bethesda on Saturday containing brief interviews of Sonya Thomas and Tim Janus. Sonya self-confidence does not seem to be affected by her recent struggles with Joey Chestnut.

Bethesda is also the home of the National Institute of Mental Health. Determining which, if any, of the entrants should check into the institute after the contest will be left as an exercise for the reader.

A hot dog contest was held in Houston in which the prize was a pair of World Series tickets. The winner, Bill Hedge, consumed an impressive 16 hot dogs in about 10 minutes, which makes him a potential threat to qualify for Nathan’s.

WIP 610 has announced that the Wing Bowl has sold out in a little more than 24 hours despite the lack of previous competitors.

Update 10/26 11:26 pm philly.com has more information about Wing Bowl ticket sales (go to the bottom of the page). 18,000 tickets were sold, which is probably about the capacity for basketball or hockey.

The semifinals round of TV Tokyo’s every-three-years “King of the Big Eaters” contest (oogui in Japanese) was held in Tokyo and Osaka this weekend. The finals will be held on November 6. It is not stated if Kobayashi participated in this event.

An article about last Saturday’s Verizon Voicewing Buffalo wing qualifier has finally appeared in the form of an editorial in Thursday’s Oakland Tribune. The author has the right to voice whatever opinions he wants about competitive eating, but not to print incorrect facts. He claims that Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut appeared in that contest.

From Bubba Yarbrough and IFOCE.com:

Greater Alabama Fall Fair, Birmingham, AL

1. 32 burgers Chip “Chip Burger” Simpson
2. 30 burgers Bubba Yarbrough
3. 26 burgers Larry “The Legend” McNeil

Chip Simpson takes first in his first major competition. Bubba and Larry continue their impressive fall tour throughout the south.

With 3 contests remaining, the current list of qualifiers is (Joey Chestnut will almost certainly get a wild-card spot)

From IFOCE com todays results from the Arizona State Fair
1. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut (32.5 sandwiches) breaks Tim Janus’ mark by 1.5
2. Andy Dickman
3. John Riddle

The following qualifier winners will appear in next month’s finals which will be held at a location to be announced:

All members of the top 10 qualified except for recuperating Carlene Lefevre (and Kobayashi)

Click below to see a list of all known non-winning double digit results:
Read the rest of this entry »

The site for the DC Verizon VoiceWing qualifier has been set at Union Jack’s British Pub in Bethesda, MD. Sonya Thomas will make her first contest appearance since Labor Day weekend. “Beautiful” Brian Seiken also expects that he, Pat Philbin, Don “Moses” Lerman, “Big” Brian Subich, “Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz, Tim”Eater X” Janus and Allen “Shredder” Goldstein will compete, giving the contest the most ranked IFOCE members since the US Open in July. Philbin will begin his campaign to win Wing Bowl 14.

In October 2000, the Japanese website citydo did an article (translated by Google) about Takako Akasaka, the leading Japanese female competitive eater. Ms. Akasaka was the first woman to break 20 hot dogs when she finished 3rd in the 2000 Nathan’s Hot Dog contest. She is also the first eater, male or female, to eat two giant sandwiches from the Carnegie Deli in New York City.

The translated article is difficult to understand, but a few facts can be gleaned from it. Like Sonya Thomas, Takako started eating in her mid-30’s, has a day job and is single. She won some major contests outright, but I don’t think she ever beat Kobayashi. She ate 90 (presumably single egg) omelettes in a contest. The last sentence of the article reads “the queen who exceeds the Akasaka valuable child probably will not come.” The author apparently did not take the emergence of Sonya Thomas into account.

Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough has set up a competitive eating forum at http://p105.ezboard.com/bthebuffet

In this forum thread for the Opie and Anthony show, Pat (from Moonachie, NJ) Philbin is encouraged by his fans to participate in the Wing Bowl. One fan is apparently not upset about the lack of previous competitors in Wing Bowl 14, for he plans to camp out for tickets starting 24 hours before they go on sale.

pe.com has a column (registration required) by someone who participated in last Monday’s grilled cheese contest at the Southern California Fair. He finished with 8 sandwiches, which he found rather unappetizing. There is also a video.

The Arizona Republic as a preview of Friday’s grilled cheese contest focusing on two local eaters.

Speedeat.com mentions that the next Wing Bowl will be closed to all previous competitors and have a $5 admission charge. 610 WIP’s Wing Bowl page makes this information official. Tickets will go on sale starting Sunday. The starting time will remain 6am the Friday before the Super Bowl. All admission fees are allocated to charity, but if the net result of the restrictions is a victory for Joey Chestnut or Rich LeFevre, they might want to use some of those funds for additional security.

Thanks Bubba Yarbrough:

Hall Hunt 20
Bubba Yarbrough 19
Frank Wach 17 1/2
Brian Subich 15
Larry McNeil 14 1/2

Congratulations to Hall “Pretty Boy” Hunt, whose win combined with a 2nd place finish in the SC contest nets him $1,500 for the extended weekend. The final grilled cheese qualifier in Phoenix on Friday is apparently Joey Chestnut’s to lose.

Updated 10/18 8:47 am The Greensboro News-Record has an article about the contest.

9:29 am the blog for WRAL TV has an entry (and a photo gallery) about the contest.

If you are looking for quotes from professors about competitive eating, pro and con, this column from fortwayne.com can provide them.

The text on the goldenpalace.com page about the grilled cheese series has apparently not been updated since before Labor Day, but there are galleries and videos for more recent contests. Not all contests have videos and pictures. There is an unknown female competitor in the video from the Arkansas qualifier.

Rich LeFevre made a triumphant return to his previous hometown at the Verizon VoiceWing Buffalo wing contest in San Francisco, defeating Cookie Jarvis in double overtime on Saturday. This is the second double OT contest “The Locust” has been involved in this year (He lost to Sonya Thomas in the MTV popcorn contest in June.) Rich and Cookie’s regulation total of 4.92 pounds is considerably better than Joey Chestnut’s winning total of 4.51 from the Seattle contest. Three other competitors qualified for the finals in Boston, but are not listed. (From IFOCE.com, no article currently available).

At the Mississippi State Fair Sunday, Buffalo Jim Reeves won the Krystal qualifier with 27 burgers. David Ray of Yazoo City almost won with 26 and John Anderson finished took third with 20. “Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz appeared, but finished out of the money. This article from the Clarion Ledger mentions the contest. (Updated 10/17 10:33 am)

The blog for Schnäck’s restaurant has the results of their mini-burger contest held Friday. “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti won with 21 burgers in 8 minutes. The contest required picnic-style eating, which decreased the totals as compared with the Krystal burger contests which has no such restriction.

Thanks to Bubba Yarbrough

Eric “Badlands” Booker: 24.5 grilled Cheese, Copaigue, NY
Hall “Pretty Boy” Hunt: 17, Orange Park, FL
Don “Sugar Bear” Schaeffer 13, Myrtle Beach, SC
Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough 12.5, Newnan, GA
Larry “The Legend” McNeil 12.5, Atlanta, GA

Congratulation to Badlands Booker whose 24.5 sandwiches is the second best so far on the qualifying circuit. Booker’s victory makes the NC contest appear to be rather wide open, with Joe LaRue the highest ranked eater currently expected to attend.

Update 10/15 8:31 pm WLTX has an article and a video clip about the contest

Anyone driving from the northeast to the NC State Fair ought to take I-95 to new US 64 (which is not yet on any online maps) and not I-85 to US 1.