The Buffalo Wing Festival has the expected entrants list for Saturday’s Buffalo wing contest. Most of the top IFOCE members from the northeast will attend, but Joe LaRue is the only competitor listed from outside that region. I am not sure if that is the final list or if other eaters might show up. No information is available about Sunday’s buffet contest, but I assume that some gurgitators will hang around for that event. Brian Subich is back from a two week hiatus with additional information about the wing contest.

Sonya Thomas appears to have a quite stern challenge preserving her almost seven-month non-Kobayashi winning streak this holiday weekend when she competes in three contests in three different cities. First she will match up with Tim Janus coming off a record smashing performance in grilled cheese along with a resurgent Cookie Jarvis in Buffalo and then face a rested Joey Chestnut in waffles in Atlanta Sunday. On labor day in Chattanooga she will face off with Joey Chestnut again in the Krystal burger qualifier.

(Thanks Sonya for the website compliment on sonyatheblackwidow.com)

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The Fremont Tribune has a preview of Saturday’s Grilled Cheese contest at the Nebraska State Fair, focusing on Mike Nafziger, who finished 5th at last Sunday’s smoked pork contest. It does not mention if any top ranked IFOCE members are expected. It also says that the grilled cheese finals will be held in Los Angeles.

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Articles mentioning the (Camden) New Jersey Tomato Festival Pizza Contest

• nj.com 8/19
• nj.com 8/20
• northjersey.com
• philly.com

There will also be a tomato throwing contest. Perhaps teams of IFOCE members and AICE members could compete in that.

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delawareonline.com has a preview of tomorrow’s crabcake contest. Sonya Thomas hopes to consume 50 3 ounce crabcakes in 12 minutes, which will contain 6,603 calories. Sonya says she will practice eating crabcakes before the contest, which I do not think she did with bratwurst. There is also some information about what Sonya experiences post-contest.

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The expected roster for the Smoked Pork Eating Championship at the Bluffs Run Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa has been released. The LeFevres are expected to attend and will face a less than overwhelming lineup. Fast-rising Patrick Bertoletti, who beat Carlene at the Chicago pizza championship, will probably be the Lefevre’s sternest challenge. Kevin Carr is the only other ranked IFOCE member competing. Several unranked IFOCE members from the east will appear, which is surprising since there are three other closer contests they could enter. The cancellation of the Saratoga Nathan’s qualifier might improve the field.

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The Buffalo News has a preview of the Chicken Wing Festival to be held at Buffalo’s minor league stadium Labor Day weekend. There will be a wing eating contest Saturday of that weekend in which Sonya Thomas will attempt to break her record of 161 wings in twelve minutes. There will also be a buffet contest on Sunday, but since it just pays out $500 to the winner, Sonya and the other top eaters might opt for the waffle contest in Atlanta, which will pay out $5,000 to the victor.

If Sonya enters two contests Labor Day weekend, she will appear in twelve contests between the 4th of July and Labor Day if each round of the US Open is counted as a separate contest. This is a considerable increase from her planned goal of 12 to 18 contests a year which is found in her website’s FAQ.

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The Delaware State News has a preview of Sunday’s crabcake contest at the Delaware Slots online with some quotes from Sonya Thomas. Sonya states she lived in Georgetown, Delaware in 1996 and managed a Burger King there so the contest will be something of a homecoming to her.

Joey Chestnut states he will travel across the country to compete, setting up the possibility of a repeat of the dramatic finish at the bratwurst contest in Wisconsin. The URL for Joey’s upcoming website will be futureofeating.com. We will see on Sunday if the future starts August 21.

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The World Lobster Eating Festival, to be held in Kennebunkport, Maine on August 13, has updated its website for 2005. A photo gallery of the 2004 competition is online. Entrants in the lobster eating competition include Sonya Thomas, Cookie Jarvis, Badlands Booker (Booker will rap from his new CD) and Crazy Legs Conti. The entrants page has not been updated from before the 2004 contest and lists Kevin Cross as the record holder. No major western eaters are listed as competing, which is understandable considering the difficulty travelling to Maine from the West Coast. Competitors will attempt to break Sonya’s record of 9.76 pounds (equivalent to 38 lobsters) in 12 minutes set last year.

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The Sheboygan Press has an article about the Johnsonville Bratwurst contest in which Sonya Thomas will compete in on Saturday. There are a few quotes in the article, one in which Sonya claims that big guys still doubt her capabilities.

This will be the third type of sausage that Sonya has eaten competitively in a little over two months. She ate Vienna sausauges in Charlotte in late May and hot dogs at Nathan’s on July 4.

The only other top eater listed as having committed to the bratwurst contest is Tim Janus, setting up a rematch of the US Open semifinal.

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signonsandiego.com has an article promoting Sonya Thomas’ appearance in a grilled cheese sandwich contest at the minor league Surf Dawgs game Wednesday. There is not really any new information in the article. Sonya will attempt to break her record of 25 sandwiches in 10 minutes which she set in Venice Beach in February. There will be 15 (!) grilled cheese sandwich contests in the circuit, the next one located in South Dakota next week. If there are no limits on the number of contests an eater can enter, Sonya could really rack up some frequent flyer miles going to grilled cheese sandwich contests. All time leading run-scorer and base stealer Rickey Henderson plays for the Surf Dawgs, so if there was a Hall of Fame for competitive eating there would be two future Hall of Famers at the Surf Dawgs stadium Wednesday.

Pictures of Sonya and Carlene LeFevre at the last grilled cheese contest can be found at:
http://www.virginmarygrilledcheese.com/welcome.php?pf=%2Fstory_eating_contest.php

ESPN.com takes note of the US Open two days after it is televised in this column which solely consists of praise for Kobayashi.

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