Joey Chestnut won the the Jacksonville Krystal qualifier with 52 burgers, 10 behind Sonya’s result last week. This does break Kobayashi’s Jacksonville qualifier record of 50 from 2004. The webcam has hung up on me before any other results were announced.

2nd Crazy Legs Conti 36
3rd Seaver Miller 35
4th-Adrian Estevez 28
4th-Joe LaRue 28
6th-Hall Hunt 27
7th-Bryan Miller 26

Updated 11:26 – full results are available at the krystalsquareoff.com

Updated 9/5 7:40 am – firstcoastnews.com has an article, pictures and a video clip

2:14 pm – jacksonville.com has an article about the contest – Thanks Brian Cooley

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krystalsquareoff.com has a full roster for today’s qualifier in Jacksonville. 7 Top 30 ranked eaters are expected:

Joey Chestnut (IFOCE #2)
Crazy Legs Conti (IFOCE #11)
Hall Hunt (IFOCE #15)
Joe LaRue (IFOCE #16)
Seaver Miller (IFOCE #17)
Bryan Miller (IFOCE #23)
Brickhouse Braunstein (IFOCE #29)

The contest is expected to start at 3pm today (eastern)

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Krystal Lover’s blog and The Chattanoogan have galleries of Sunday’s Krystal Square Off qualifier where Sonya Thomas almost doubled the runner up by eating a personal record 62 burgers.

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KrystalSquareOff.com has complete results from today’s qualifier in Chattanooga. The top 3 finishers are:

1st-Sonya Thomas (62)
2nd-Chris Abatsas (32)
3rd-Shaun Kesler (23)

Sonya ties the US record set by Joey Chestnut in last year’s finals and beats her personal (and allover qualifier) record of 57 she set last year.

Updated 9:47 pm – The Chattanoogan has an article about the qualifier

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krystalsquareoff.com has the roster for today’s qualifier. Josh Neal and Jesse Crick won the prequalifier slots. The only ranked eater besides Sonya in the field is Nathan Kunce (#48). Shaun Kesler, who finished third in the Chattanooga qualifier last year will also attend.

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(From Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough) A video podcast of Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough and Larry “the Legend” McNeil in a 3 minute Krystal burger contest on the Noonan Now show is available.

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The Krystal lovers blog reports that Sonya will appear in Sunday’s Krystal qualifier in Chattanooga. She won that event in 2004 and 2005, winning last year’s contest by a single burger.

The preliminary qualifiers started today with Josh Neal having the best performance with 12 Krystals in 2 minutes. The calendar for the Chattanooga prequalifiers and qualifier lists the times the contests will be webcast.

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A Krystal press release announces that first Krystal Square Off preliminary round will be webcast today along with the opening ceremonies. Contests can be viewed at seen at krystalsquareoff.com

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from megamunchFans interested in the outcome of the Krystal qualifiers (and pre-qualifiers) will not have to wait for results to be posted. Krystal announces that they intend to have live webcasts of all 157 contests in the series.

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Krystal announces that registration for the 8 Krystal Square Off III qualifiers opens today. A limited amount of byes to the qualifer finals are available by registering on the IFOCE website. Eaters who register in person or after all the byes are claimed will have to enter a two-minute pre-qualifier. There will be four wild cards for the finals.

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The 2006 Krystal Square Off qualifiers were announced today. Eight qualifiers will be held:

Aug. 24 – 27 Chattanooga, Tenn.
Sept. 1 – 4 Jacksonville, Fla.
Sept. 8 – 10 Nashville, Tenn.
Sept. 15 – 17 Knoxville, Tenn.
Sept. 21 – 24 Atlanta, Ga.
Sept. 29 – Oct. 1 Memphis, Tenn.
Oct. 5 – 8 Perry, Ga.
Oct. 13 – 15 Jackson, Miss.

Oct 28 Finals Chattanooga, TN – will be televised on ESPN2

The purse is $30,000, probably the largest ever for an American eating contest, with a $10K first place prize. Prizes are listed down to 13th place, so they will probably be at least 4 wild card qualifiers after taking into account Kobayashi and the 8 qualifier winners. With finals prizes down to last place, it is unlikely we will see a one burger performance on October 28.

Joey Chestnut appeared at the press conference announcing the qualifiers and ate a record 28 burgers in 2 minutes

Updated 10:28 pm
A youtube video and flickr gallery of the exhibition by Brad is available

Some Krystal employees involved in the Square Off have a blog at http://krystal-lover.blogspot.com/

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The website for the Krystal Square Off has been updated with information about the 2006 contest. The finals will take place on October 28, earlier than in previous years. The qualifier schedule will apparently be released on July 18.

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Liz has posted Claudine Ko’s article about her participation in the Krystal Square Off finals and Sonya Thomas at http://www.urbanhonking.com/digest/archives/2006/04/sonya_thomas_in.html A photo album of the pictures in the article is also available.

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(Thanks Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough & Tube Sock Destroyer) The May issue of Jane Magazine (page 140) has an article (not available online) about Sonya Thomas which also includes an account of reporter Claudine Ko’s training for and participation in the Krystal Square Off finals (via a sponsor’s exemption). The article has a picture of “Sister X” wearing her brother’s trademark makeup.

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(Thanks Patrick Bertoletti) The Krystal Square Off website has been updated with a photo gallery of the finals. (Click on events, then World Championship) “The Whaler” apparently has competition for the title of #1 Eater X fan; some spectators wore facepaint in the style of their hero.

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Yahoo news has an AP article about Joey Chestnut’s near defeat of Kobayashi at the Krystal Square Off finals. After being tied at 60 Krystals with 37 seconds remaining, Kobayashi consumed 7 burgers while Joey Chestnut only managed one, which he blames on failing to immerse one of the burgers in water. Kobayashi claims he had difficulty moving his arms fast enough despite his muscularity.

A video of that contest is available on the article page.

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Bret Douglas has a very nice photo gallery of the 2005 Krystal finals. Sonya does not look extremely happy with her third place check.

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Krystal Square Off finals, Chattanooga, TN
1. Takeru Kobayashi, 67 burgers
2. Joey Chestnut, 62 burgers
3. Sonya Thomas, 56 burgers
4. Bob Shoudt, 51 burgers
5. Rich Lefevre 42 burgers
6. Tim Janus 41 burgers
7. Eric “Badlands” Booker 40 burgers
8T. Ron Koch 37 burgers
8T. Pat Bertoletti 37 burgers
10. Sam Vise 35 burgers

more complete results from beautifulbrian.com added 11/20 11:36 pm

For the first time in his competitive career, Kobayashi trailed for a longer period in a contest than he was ahead for. He was able to overcome a deficit in the final minute which at one point was six burgers. Kobayashi’s mark is two less than the 69 he ate last year.

AFP article about the contest
WDEF article about the contest

Pound for pound results:
1. Sonya Thomas 56 / 100 = .56
2. Takeru Kobayashi 67 / 170 = .39
3. Joey Chestnut 62 / 210 = .30

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(From IFOCE.com) Kobayashi weighed in at 172 pounds. His added mass is surprising as he blamed increasing his weight to the 140s from the 130s last year for his not breaking the record at Nathan’s in 2005. Kobayashi’s weight increase makes Sonya Thomas the world’s greatest eater pound for pound by a considerable margin.

A third wild card slot was added to the field, enabling Hall Hunt to compete. Jane magazine writer Claudine Ko will also appear thanks to a sponsor’s exemption.

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From IFOCE.com:

Patrick Bertoletti 30 burgers
Don “Moses” Lerman 26 burgers
Shawn Kessler 25 burgers

All qualifier winners:

Joey Chestnut and Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough are the wild cards and Takeru Kobayashi returns as defending champion.

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IFOCE.com has a full list of the expected competitors in the Knoxville Krystal qualifier Sunday. The ranked members of that roster are Don “Moses” Lerman, Patrick Bertoletti and Kevin Carr. Cookie Jarvis does not appear on the list, so he will not make the finals since Knoxville is the final qualifier. Patrick Bertoletti would probably be favored, but he might be handicapped by competing in the Verizon Voicewing Buffalo wing finals the day before.

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Krystal Square Off Qualifier, Greater Jacksonville Fair, Nov 6 (from IFOCE.com)
1. “Crazy Legs” Conti, 31 burgers
2. Hall Hunt, 30 burgers
3. Brian Miller, 24 burgers

Conti is not the first Bostonian to win a big event in Jacksonville in 2005; the Patriots won the Super Bowl in February.

Not only does Hunt miss the top spot and automatic qualification by just one burger, his total puts his 3 contest average at 26.67, third place in the wild card category, and less than a burger behind Loren Yarbrough’s average of 27.33. The top two wild card qualifiers make the finals and Joey Chestnut has the first wild card slot. No eater can compete in more than three qualifiers.

Jacksonville.com has a profile of Hall Hunt (registration required)

With one qualifier remaining in Knoxville Sunday, the winners of the first round contests are:

Notable eaters who have yet to qualify include Cookie Jarvis and Patrick Bertoletti. Don “Moses” Lerman and Kevin Carr have also announced intentions to compete in Knoxville.

Recorded non-winning finishes of 20 or more burgers are: (list might be incomplete)

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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.

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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)

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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)

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