The basementmusing blog reports on television offerings at a bowling alley:

So he changed the chanel to good old TSN. To his shegrin what was on was the Krystal burger eating competition. What we began to see unfold was dudes by the name of Crazy Legs Conti eating burgers in front of thousands of screaming hillbillies from Tennessee.

TSN is the Canadian sports channel. It is interesting that this year’s finals would be rerun on Canadian televison, but has not been shown (to the best of my knowledge) on ESPN / ESPN2 since it originally aired in October.

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Valerie Bromann drove to the Krystal Square Off from Chicago and wrote a contest writeup and a trip report for her blog. She also has galleries of the contest and her road trip

Valerie also attended the Chicago jalapeno contest in September and has a contest report and gallery from that event.

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A list of recent quotes from nighttime comedy shows has the following joke from “Late Night with David Letterman”:

“Here’s the kind of thing that makes this country great. A guy in Tennessee was in a food eating competition. … He wins the competition. He ate 103 hamburgers in eight minutes. … But you think about it, this has been a hell of a year for Al Gore. One thing after another.”

Pat Philbin is mentioned in another quote in the list, but it is the FEMA director who held a fake press conference, not the Moonachie resident.

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Hungry Sisters KSO IV galleries: Part 1, Part 2
Pro CE column in U of Oregon paper. Russ Keeler is quoted.
Article about the Borough, a Raleigh, NC restaurant which hosts a monthly eating contest.
Anti Cayman Island conch fritter contest editorial
62 year old spicy chili eating champion from India
Eating contest for Corgi dogs
MTV In N Out burger eating contest video (from Laura)
Anti – CE rant on youtube , not safe for work (from Beautiful Brian)

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HungrySisters is a new blog describing its focus as: “food, especially (but not necessarily limited to): Dairy Queen, Tacos, and the fine art known as competitive eating.” The sisters traveled west from their home in North Carolina to go to the Krystal Square Off finals and wrote a trip report about it.

The next morning we were ready for the festivities to begin. We ate breakfast at this awesome cafe connected to our hotel. Sadie and I both ordered Chocolate Chip Pancakes. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and walked to the riverside where the contest was to take place. We arrived about 2 hours early, but we didn’t have anything better to do, so we watched the Krystal People set up the area for the contest. While we were waiting, we met Crazy Legs Conti!!!! It was the coolest thing ever. It was our first encounter meeting a real-live competitive eater; one who we have seen on TV many, many times. Very exciting!!!

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A clip from ESPN’s Sportcenter about the results of Krystal Square Off IV can be viewed at http://broadband.espn.go.com/ivp/splash2?id=3084545

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Liz has a report on her experience as Pat Bertoletti’s counter at the Square Off finals on the Krystal Lover blog

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Kobayashi has a post about Krystal Square Off IV, which contains some pictures with Pat Bertoletti and Rich LeFevre from a training session at a Krystal franchise last year.

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Some captures from the Krystal Square Off IV broadcast:

Contest Introduction Eaters Introduction Contest

Paul Barlow also has some contest pictures on his website

update ChuckyPurdue has a flickr gallery of over 100 pictures from the Krystal Square Off finals.

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A transcipt of the introduction of the competitors from the Krystal broadcast follows after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »

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Krystal Square Off IV finals updated with official results

1. Joey Chestnut 103
2. Bob Shoudt 95
3. Pat Bertoletti 94
4. Tim Janus 74
5. Sonya Thomas 58
6. Rich LeFevre 53
7. Hall Hunt 52
8. Chip Simpson 49
9. Erik Denmark 45
10. Crazy Legs Conti 45
11. Juliet Lee 44
12. Tim Brown 38
13. Allen Goldstein 34

update

beautifulbrian.com has a video of the contest

The Times Free Press has an article.

A video posted by skinnyboy is available on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS1-2Kxkeco

The Gaston Gazette has a plea for picnic style rules

update
Blog entry by a competitor in the amateur 2 person contest.

the liveblog of the program follows after the jump
Read the rest of this entry »

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A video of Crazy Legs Conti practicing his Krystal technique at IFOCE headquarters overseen by Tim Janus can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yisNKMIr_As

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No reruns are scheduled on ESPN or ESPN2 for the Krystal Square Off finals in the next two weeks, so watch it or record it tomorrow at 2:30 pm eastern on ESPN if you are interested in seeing it.

A live bowling match precedes the Krystal finals, hopefully it will not run over.

With a 30 minute contest length, it does not appear there will be enough time for much more than introductions, the contest and a post-contest interview. From the schedule

2 p.m. – 2:40p.m. – Introduction of eaters by George Shea, Chairman of the IFOCE.
* 2:40 – 2:48 p.m. – 8 minute Krystal Square Off World Championship Final.
* 2:55 pm – Award Presentations

Liz will be counting for Pat Bertoletti, so she should appear on television.

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Krystal Lover has a picture from today’s press conference at the Krystal Square Off finals site which Joey Chestnut & Pat Bertoletti both attended.

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BodogLife is taking bets on the Krystal finals and has a page listing the odds it also has a detailed schedule of the the finals.

Liz has a guest post on the Krystal-Lover blog

TideSports.com has a video (in the “In The Trenches” section) from the Tuscaloosa qualifier containing an interview with Joey Chestnut and other competitors (from Paul Barlow)

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Super Paul Bonebreaker Barlow has his posted his predictions for the Krystal finals on his myspace blog. His top 5:

1. Joey Chestnut
2. Pat Bertoletti
3T. Bob Shoudt & Tim Janus
5. Sonya Thomas

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SBTW.com reports that Sonya will be able able to attend the Krystal finals Sunday:

I didn’t want to mention this again until I was absolutely certain, but I have been able to come up with a work around regarding my full time job, so that I will be able to compete at the Krystal Finals in Chattanooga, TN this Sunday, 28 Oct 07, which will be televised live on ESPN at 2:30 PM EST. As such, I am thoroughly excited, except for the fact that the World Champ, Takeru Kobayashi, will be unable to defend his title, due to the equivalent of arthritis in his jaw. (I hope he recovers in the next few months, because that’s no fun.)

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Kobayashi has a blog entry about his absence from the Krystal finals in both English and Japanese. He reports his injury caused him to drop out of the turkey contest:

Reviewing my training schedule, and decreasing the strain on my jaw by drawing out my breaks as long as possible, I managed to make it to the entry stage of the contest, but unfortunately my jaw couldn’t hold up to the consecutive battles. Injured again in action, I was forced to step down part way through the second competition.

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TimesFreePress.com reports on a change in the field of Sunday’s Krystal finals:

Three-time champion Takeru Kobayashi will not compete in this year’s Krystal Square Off IV World Hamburger Eating Championship due to persistent jaw pain.

“Takeru Kobayashi has informed us that he needs additional time for his jaw to repair and that his hiatus is indefinite but not permanent,” George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating, said in a prepared statement. “The well being of our competitors is paramount and we wish him speedy recovery.”

If Kobayashi’s slot is filled with the 5th highest wild card, Jim Reeves will receive it.

updated More links

IFOCE.com roster, Kobayashi is not present but Sonya Thomas is.
WMCTV.com article
TimesFreePress.com article from Sunday, does not mention Kobayashi’s absence
Schedule of Events on KrystalSquareOff.com
Letter about Krystal finals and hunger relief organizations
blog entry about Bo Hicks, top Alabaman in Tuscaloosa qualifier
Another Times Free Press article from Sunday gives finals location – Ross’s Landing and the Chattanooga Green at the intersection of Chestnut Street and Riverfront Parkway

update #2
Times Free Press has an article containing short interview podcasts with Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti

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TuscaloosaNews.com has an article about today’s Krystal qualifier, which did not start at its expected time:

That craziness almost derailed the final Krystal Square Off qualifier Saturday. Scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. on the Quad, the event was delayed nearly half an hour as event planners waited for the arrival of world champion eater Joey Chestnut, who was stuck in game-day traffic.

The article also reports that Joey ate 83 burgers and not the 87 on KrystalSquareOff.com and IFOCE.com

If the contest started without Joey, Jim Reeves would have the wild card slot taken by Tim Brown.

TuscaloosaNews.com also has footage of the 2 minute prequalifiers (from Paul Barlow)

RollTide.com also has some videos (from Paul Barlow)

footage of entire contest
Tim Brown post-contest interview

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From KrystalSquareOff.com

Joey breaks Pats qualifier record by 2.

The Krystal wild cards are:

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Liz reports that Krystal has asked her to be a counter for the Krystal Square Off finals.

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KrystalSquareOff has updated information about the final qualifier. The site and date of the Alabama Krystal 8 minute qualifier has been changed from October 21 in Birmingham to October 20 in Tuscaloosa. Prequalifiers will be held Friday at a Tuscaloosa Krytal.

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Joey Chestnut is currently on the front page of TuscaloosaNews.com Some of the world records listed on Joey’s picture (jalapenos, waffles) are not actually world records.

There is also an article about Joey Chestnut in al.com

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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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