From breitbart.com

The city of Hanamaki in Iwate Prefecture will host the region’s famous “wanko-soba” noodle-eating competition in two U.S. cities, according to city officials.

In the competition, participants will eat as many bite-size portions of buckwheat noodles in a lacquered bowl as possible in a limited time. A champion from a February competition held in the city finished 225 bowls of noodles in five minutes.

The competition is also popular in the Iwate capital of Morioka.

The city will host the events in the Arkansas city of Hot Springs, a sister city of Hanamaki, on Wednesday, and in New York on Saturday, where the association of Iwate expatriates marked the 10th anniversary.

I have not been able to find any details online about the Arkansas or New York contests.

Hatsuyo Sugawara, the top woman in the recent “Gluttonous King” contest, won the February contest

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NintendoWorldReport.com has a preview of the Major League Eating ramen noodle contest which lists some of the expected competitors:

The contest will feature not merely an all-star cast of competitive eaters, but a virtual cornucopia of interesting characters to boot. The focus will be on 4th-ranked Tim “Eater X” Janus of New York City, the face-painting tiramisu champ who recently ate 20 pounds of grits in ten minutes. Nipping at Janus’ heels will be his roommate and training partner, Crazy Legs Conti, a man who once ate his way out of an 96-cubic foot box of popcorn, earning the nickname, “the Evel Knievel of the Alimentary Canal.” Arturo “Grande” Rios, the 13th-ranked pigs’ feet-eating champ from New Jersey , will be fending off best friend duo Eric “Steakbellie” Livingston and Micah “Wing Kong” Collins, as well as 18th-ranked Justin Mih, a Harvard graduate student and chopstick specialist.

update The IFOCE.com page about the contest consists of paragraphs 1, 3 and 4 of the press release, with the second paragraph listing the competitors edited out.

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The field for today’s Krystal qualifier at the University of Alabama has been posted. Ranked eaters in that list are:
Joey Chestnut
Tim Brown
Juris Shibayama
Loren Yarbrough
Marco Marquez
Super Paul Barlow

The page describes the wild card scenarios:

Shibayama’s one Krystal advantage gives him the tie-breaker should he and Brown tie for a Wildcard Spot. To earn a Wildcard, Shibayama must finish with 41 or more Krystals, or he must eat 40 Krystals and Brown finish with 40 or less. To claim a Wildcard, Brown must finish with 41 or more Krystals, or 40 Krystals and finish ahead of Shibayama.

Full results from the Jackson, MS qualifier have yet to be posted.

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The October 27 taquito contest that was originally in the Arizona State Fair list of attractions has been deleted. It does not appear in the list of contests either.

The contest is still present in the Yahoo cache

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A page about tonight’s MLE Chowdown has been set up on the Spike TV website. The page has videos of the top 10 commercials and profile pages of some of the competitors who are listed as (current IFOCE ranking in parentheses):

Joey Chestnut(1), Takeru Kobayashi(2), Pat Bertoletti(3), Tim Janus(4), Rich LeFevre(8), Hall Hunt(9), Juliet Lee(10), Erik Denmark(12), Arturo Rios Jr.,(13) Allen Goldstein(14), Tim Brown(15), Micah Collins(17), Eric Livingston(21), Juris Shibayama(23), Chris Abatsas(25)

Bob Shoudt was listed in the original press release, but apparently did not compete.

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TuscaloosaNews.com reports on the Krystal prequalifiers which will be held at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa:

On Saturday, Chestnut will demonstrate his winning jaws at the Krystal Square Off qualifying competition on the Quad before the Alabama-Tennessee game. The winner qualifies for the Krystal Square Off finals in Chattanooga on Oct. 28.

The preliminary trials are open to anyone who thinks they can put it away without having it come back up, and the top 10 will go on to compete on Saturday. But would-be competitors should know who they’re up against: Chestnut’s personal best is 91 Krystals in eight minutes. The current record is 97, held by Japanese eating wunderkind Takeru Kobayashi, who, until this year, was also the six-time world champion of the Academy Awards of competitive eating: the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest held in Coney Island each Fourth of July.

IFOCE.com has more information about the prequalifiers

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The Naughty American has an article (contains spoilers) previewing the “Wedges & Wings” contest in which Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti discuss female fans and cheating techniques.

Bertoletti claims that, while the competitions are closely monitored by the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) to prevent this sort of thing, there are ways to get around it.

“The dishonest people will push the rules a little bit. If it’s not stated in the rules, people will do it,” he said.

While the issue of cheating with drug use is a major problem with other sports, the IFOCE does not currently conduct drug testing on competitors.

“As far as drugs that would give me an edge, I haven’t found any yet,” Chestnut says. “But I’m trying.”

The Cleveland Free Times has a brief article about Chris “the Mad Greek” Abatsas’ participation in the wedges contest.

The Las Vegas Review Journal has pictures (captions contain spoilers) from the potato wedges contest.

Juliet Lee has a trip report.

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CompetitiveEatingNews.com has a short blurb about Thursday’s “Wedges & Wings” telecast with the following information about the field:

The magnificent and hotly anticipated event will showcase the eating talents of Takeru Kobayashi, Pat Bertoletti, Joey Chestnut, the Mad Greek and Eater X along with Juliet Lee, Wing Kong and the mysterious El Toro among others

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The Jackson Krystal roster is out. Eaters from outside Mississippi are below:

Crazy Legs Conti
Justin Mih
Nathan Biller
Jason Erb
Marco Marquez
Pete Davekos
Micah Collins
Eric Livingston
Russ Witzke
Brian Subich

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A Nathan’s hot dog eating contest will be held at Belmont Park’s New York Showcase Fall Festival on October 20. I am assuming this event is not a qualifier for the 2008 finals, but qualifiers have been held at that location previously.

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In a transcript of a radio interview yesterday on the Steve Dahl show, Pat Bertoletti says that tonight’s contest will feature turkeys and whole hams will be the food on Thursday.

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Steakbellie will compete in the “Wedges & Wings” contest in Las Vegas tonight. He verifies that Kobayashi is present. Steakbellie reports that three separate TV specials will be recorded at the same session, which will fulfill the Spike TV contract.

I think this leaves 6 unknown slots in the contest.

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Las Vegas Advisor has information about tomorrow’s “Wedges and Wings” contest.

Kobayashi’s blog reports that he got a new hairstyle and is not sure when he will be able to update his blog, so he will probably attend.

STBW says that October will be a “very very light month” CE-wise for Sonya, so she will probably not attend.

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The New York Daily News reports that Arturo Rios will compete in the “MLE Chowndown” to be held in Las Vegas Tuesday.

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KrystalSquareOff.com has the roster for today’s qualifier at the Georgia National Fair.

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From ActiveAnime.com

The Nintendo World Store will be filled with gaming stations, collectible card game areas and a professional Ramen Noodle Eating Contest (using chop sticks!) featuring some of the world’s most renowned competitive eating athletes in an event sanctioned by Major League Eating (MLE). Also featured during the NARUTO Launch Event will be game tournaments with prizes, costumed NARUTO characters, free give-away items and much more!

WHEN: Oct 27th 2007, 10am – 4pm (eating contest at 11.30am)
WHERE: Nintendo World Store, 10 Rockefeller Plaza, NY, NY
WHY: NARUTO Wii LAUNCH PARTY
WHO: Presented by TOMY and D3P, Nintendo and Major League Eating

It will be interesting to see how the chopsticks affect the contest if they are required.

See also NY Post

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StlToday.com reports that a sausage eating contest will be held at the Soulard Octoberfest this weekend. Soulard.org has more details:

This year, the Soulard Oktoberfest Benevolent Association has added even more reasons to attend St. Louis’ most authentic German festival. Along with the annual World’s Largest Bratwurst Competition, SOBA is sponsoring Fat Toney’s Sausage Eating Contest for those brave and hungry enough to enter. With a grand prize of a trip to Las Vegas,compliments of Fat Toney Goucher himself, this competition is sure to attract a crowd. Fat Toney’s Sausage Eating Contest will take place on Oct. 6 at 1 p.m. Sign up for the Herculean task or simply cheer on the brave and the hungry.

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PRNewsWire.com has a press release about the second MLE event to be televised on Spike TV:

Spike TV and Major League Eating present JOEY CHESTNUT vs. KOBAYASHI (and the other top eaters in the world) in chicken wing (Buffalo Wild Wings(R)) and potato wedge consumption in Las Vegas, Tuesday, October 9 from the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas.

This one hour special, MLE Chowdown: Wedges And Wings, will air Thursday, October 18 at 11:00pm ET/PT on Spike TV.

…

Joining Chestnut and Kobayashi will be the top Major League Eaters in the world including Patrick Bertoletti (winner of Spike TV’s St. 2007 Patrick’s Day Chowdown), Tim “Eater X” Janus, “Humble” Bob Shoudt, Richard LeFevre, Juliet Lee, and Hall Hunt.

This event marks the second MLE on Spike TV. The first, The St. Patrick’s Day Chowdown, featuring corned beef and cabbage, green donuts, and jalapenos, drew a robust 739,000 viewers on March 17.

The press release says that 16 eaters will compete, leaving 8 unnamed.

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The Washington Post’s Sports “Bog” has an entry about Sunday’s “Pros vs. Joes” pizza contest that is mainly about Redskin Kedric Golston. Some of the best eaters on the Redskins are mentioned:

Guard Randy Thomas has entered eating contests before; Golston labeled him “a legend” and said “I need to call him and figure out how to warm my stomach up.” Former D-linemen Renaldo Wynn and Joe Salave’a were “definitely in the top five” of Redskins eaters, but they’ve both been released. (Demetric Evans, though, is not an eating star; “he’s too pretty,” Golston said.)

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KrystalSquareOff.com reports that Tim “Eater X” Janus, Erik “The Red” Denmark and Justin Mih will compete in Sunday’s Krystal Square Off qualifier in Memphis.

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An ad on http://uweekly.com/drinks (Might have to keep reloading until it appears) reads:

CHICKS EAT CHICKS @ LEDO’S!! Thurs, Oct. 4th!

Chicken Wing Eating Contest! Winner gets $150 CASH!!! Interested in competing? Log on to www.uweekly.com/bcs to register.

www.uweekly.com/bcs has no information about the contest. Contacting ledosbar.com might have more information.

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The Shreveport Times has a preview of Saturday’s grits eating contest at Harrah’s Louisiana Downs which lists some expected entrants:

At the upcoming contest at Louisiana Downs, the early favorite is top-ranked Joey Chestnut, who upset Takeru Kobayashi at the 2007 Fourth of July hot dog eating contest by downing 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Challenging Chestnut will be third-ranked Pat Bertoletti, a mohawked chef from Chicago who once ate 16 pounds of strawberry shortcake in eight minutes and recently upset Chestnut in a pork rib contest. Challenging Bertoletti will be Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, the 100-pound woman who once ate 552 oysters in 10 minutes; fourth-ranked tiramisu champ Tim “Eater X” Janus; SPAM-eating champ Rich “The Locust” LeFevre; and seventh-ranked “Humble” Bob Shoudt, a pie specialist from Royersford, Pa.

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A hot dog eating contest will be held at the Ashburton Café in Boston at 12:30 PM. The entry fee is $5 and the proceeds will go to a charity of the winner’s choice.

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The list of attractions at the Arizona State Fair says there will be a taquito eating contest sponsored by Major League Eating on October 27.

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The Kingpin of Cowtown received a press release about the Waffle House contest to be held October 7 at the Texas State Fair. The expected competitors listed in that document are:

The ten-minute all-you-can-eat waffle-eating contest will feature not merely an all-star cast of competitive eaters, but a virtual cornucopia of interesting characters to boot. Nipping at the heels of Chestnut and Bertoletti will be 26th-ranked Brad “Old School” Sciullo, a chef from Uniontown, PA, who can down a gallon of milk in 26 seconds. Sciullo recently upset a legion of higher-ranked gurgitators at the World Buffalo Wing Eating Championships. Also competing will be Brickhouse Braunstein from Bethesda, Dave “U.S. Male” Goldstein, and Walker “Texas Ranger” Duke, a waffle-specialist from Dallas, who has been boasting to everyone in earshot that he plans to upset Joey Chestnut in what he’s billing as, “the nosh heard around the world.”

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