3rd round Italian salad 7 minutes
Sonya Thomas over Ron Koch, Tim Janus over Rich LeFevre, Cookie Jarvis over Badlands Booker, Kobayashi over Sam Vise. Rich LeFevre did not enjoy much hometown advantage, getting upset by Tim Janus who rebounded from a moderately disappointing performance at Nathan’s.

Sonya finished her second 2 pound salad as time expired, beating Ron Koch handily. Kobayashi essentially quit as he had built up a big enough lead. I am not sure if he quit before finishing his second salad, if he did then Sonya can claim a world record for Italian salad as she appeared to be the only competitor who finished two salads.

Sonya’s feature was essentially a repeat of the profile from Nathan’s in which she wore a witch outfit.

Semi Finals Potato skins
Sonya defeated Tim Janus rather easily, 53 skins to 44 while Kobayashi destroyed Cookie Jarvis with 72 skins. When asked what Janus needs to do to move into the elite, Sonya said he needed to expand his stomach capacity. Given Sonya’s increasing capacity, Janus is up against a moving target.

Potato skins should probably be judged by weight and not number as potato size is quite variable.

Finals 6 pound tailgate platter 15 minutes
Sonya was beaten pretty easily by Kobayashi, who came close to finishing two platters. She was really struggling at the end. The platter was difficult to eat due to the diversity of food items on it. Sonya tried to sort of make a stew out of the items, but it did not make that much difference. It was hard to follow the contest as it jumped from the start to the end and it did not give when the first platters were finished. I think the tailgate platter was the only contest item which contained meat.

A parody of the Michelob Ultra commercials, in which a man and woman compete in something like roller blading and then get hydrated by drinking a low carb beer could be made in which Kobayashi and Sonya chow down and then relax after the competition drinking a Michelob Ultra to reduce the amount of calories they consume. (I wonder how Sonya’s metabolism affects how her body processes alcohol.)

The next chance for Sonya to face Kobayashi will probably come at the Crystal burger championship if Kobayashi chooses to defend his win there.

A good showing for Sonya, defeating four talented competitors in a wide array of food items despite disappointment at the end. If she could practice on a ESPNZone tailgate platter, she might have been able to devise more effective techniques. While the 2005 US Open of Competitive Eating and Nathan’s hot dog contest have shown that the current distance between Kobayashi and Sonya is considerable, they also made it apparent that there is an undeniable gap between Sonya Thomas and whoever might be competing for third.

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