Galleries: Deadspin | Gothamist | TimeOutNY | FireTheCannon
Deadspin blog entry titled “The 4th Of July Hot Dog Eating Contest Was Just A Big Old Mess Of Sweat And Vomit”
NY Time City Room blog entry
Yahoo MMA blog entry comparing Kobayashi to Fedor Emelianenko
Hungry Sisters blog entry and gallery
Val Bromann blog entries: Day 1
ESPN behind the scenes video, has interviews with Badlands Booker & Gravy Brown
Driven By Boredom blog entry & gallery about the afterparty for the eaters
Slate.com has a column by William Saletan

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update July 5 #2 CNN has a video of Kobayashi after his release. Kobayashi’s next appearance in court will be on August 5.
CalorieLab has a human translation of Kobayashi’s July 3 blog entry.

update July 5 The Associated Press reports that Kobayashi has been freed from jail and will have a court appearance today.

update 10:55 pm Some more links
An updated New York Daily News article
Yahoo News has an AP article with over 1000 comments
Deadspin has a blog entry with a video
Youtube has another video
New York Metromix has a gallery
“Kobayashi arrested” is #6 in Google Trends, over 8 hours after the incident
Gastroboy noted that someone claiming to be Kobayashi has started a twitter at http://twitter.com/FreeKobayashi

update 2:39 The New York Post has a more detailed article about Kobayashi’s arrest. (via gastroboy)

Two beefy men, wearing polo shirts with NYPD logos, stopped Kobayashi as he attempted to hop a barricade and reach Joey Chestnut after the San Jose, Calif., eating machine won his fourth consecutive Nathan’s title.

The muscle men put Kobayashi in a headlock and dragged him backstage. Witnesses said that it appeared Kobayashi had no ill intent and wanted to congratulate Chestnut.

update 1:42 The Associated Press reports that Takeru Kobayashi was taken into custody by police after he went on stage after the contest.

The results: Results #4 – #16 from the eating contest twitter
1) Joey Chestnut 54, fourth victory in a row
2) Tim Janus 45
3) Pat Bertoletti 37
4) Sonya Thomas 36
5) Bob Shoudt 34
6) Erik Denmark 32
7) Tim “Gravy” Brown 31
8) Allen “Shredder” Goldstein 28
9) Juliet Lee 27
9) Ben Monson 27
11) Sean Gordon 26.5
12) Eric “Badlands” Booker 24
12) Pete Davekos 24
14) Crazy Legs Conti 20
15) Bryan Beard 15.5
16) Krystopher Adams 11

12:53 Joey Chestnut wins comfortably

12:48 At the halfway point. Joey Chestnut has a comfortable lead. Rich Shea alludes to the controversial escondido qualifier.

12:43 The contest starts. “Joey Chestnut” and “dog eating contest” are twitter trending topics. Kobayashi is shown in the crowd.

12:28 The eaters’ entrances start

The Nathan’s commercial showed Kobayashi, Dale Boone & Cookie Jarvis.

Paul Page called Joey Chestnut “Joey Chitwood”.

It is official that Takeru Kobayashi will not compete. This will be the first finals without a Japanese competitor since 1996.

SillyAmerica, HungrySisters, Will Millender and Gothamist are live blogging

BadlandsBooker and the eating contest twitter have posted a lot of pictures.

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(Bumped & Modified originally posted June 27)

The following people won a slot in the 2010 Nathan’s finals by winning a qualifier. The second column is the number of hot dogs eaten in the qualifier (click on the names to see their contest history)

Allen Goldstein received a slot by leading the wild card standings. Here are the wild card standings according to results in the eatfeats datbase (qualifier winners not listed):

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Kobayashi did an interview with the New York Daily News, where he says restriction from competing in in non-IFOCE contests is the reason why he is not extending his contract.

“They want complete control over me,” he told the Daily News. “I just want to compete and do what I love. They are trying to take away my freedom.”

Kobayashi says that he is training as if he will compete Sunday

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update The new poll asks what you think Kobayashi’s future in competitive eating will be.

ESPN Sportcenter recently announced that Takeru Kobayashi has failed to reach a contract agreement with Major League Eating and is not scheduled to appear in the July 4 contest. This will end his streak at 9 contests (6 victories) if he does not compete.

An official article has not been released. Use twitter search for “Kobayashi” if you need verification.

update Fanhouse has a blog entry raising the possibility that the contract dispute is a publicity stunt.

Deadspin has a blog entry with Richard Shea’s statement.

update #2 IFOCE.com has a post consisting solely of Richard Shea’s statement

update #3 The Wall Street Journal’s Metropolis blog has an entry noting that the MLE contract does not offer a guaranteed payout.

update #4 Kobayashi’s blog makes no mention of a contract dispute. The most recent entry (June 24) talks about received the book Tacky the Penguin from Crazy Legs Conti.

update #5 CSNBayArea has an interview with Joey Chestnut (link fixed, thanks gastroboy)

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update July 1 The sports / athlete gossip blog Deadspin did a post about the controversy after receiving a tip from Dave Wagner “Sam” containing this quote from Rich Shea:

The officials at this particular qualifier reviewed Crazy Legs Conti’s eating area and determined a deduction should be made for detritus. After the deduction, Conti’s total was still enough to win the event. The ruling stands and Conti will compete in Coney Island on July 4th.

update June 30 Sammy Bee served as a contest judge and emailed a post contest picture of Conti’s plate & cups:

update June 29 Space Pirate Queen has a flickr gallery with videos of the contest

update June 28 pt 2 Runner-up Adrian Morgan has posted a comment.

update June 28 Dave Wagner has posted the uncut video to youtube Part 1 | Part 2

update #4 NC Times has an article

update #3 DL Wagner has a blog entry and video from the qualifier focusing on Crazy Legs Conti.

update #2 The OC Register has an article

update The MLE facebook has the top 5 (Part 1 | Part 2 )
1) Crazy Legs Conti 25
2T) Adrian Morgan 22
2T) Brian Subich 22
4) Damon Wells 21
5) Ron Koch 19
? Shawn Kirby 9

OCRegister has a preview of the Nathan’s qualifier in Escondido, California listing Shawn Kirby, Damon Wells, Crazy Legs Conti and Adrian Morgan as expected entrants.

Kevin Ross and Matt Cohen will also compete and did an interview on the Scott and BR show. (podcast)

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update The Poughkeepsie Journal has an article

YNN has a video

3:36 The top 3 have been posted

1) Juliet Lee 28.25
2) Allen “Shredder” Goldstein 25.5
3) Micah “Wing Kong” Collins 24
? Drew Altavilla 6.5

Goldstein will be the wild card unless someone breaks 28.75 in the final qualifier in California (or the runner up in the first contest today exceeded that amount)

1:23 The contest has started

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update #2 The top 3

1) Tim “Eater X” Janus 46 HDB
2) Pat “from Moonachie” Philbin 22
3) Brian “Dud Light” Dudzinski 21
? Andrew Kossuth 10.5

BeautifulBrian.com has an article and video

update The MLE facebook reports Tim Janus won with 46 HDB.

The MLE facebook lists Tim Janus & Pat “from Moonachie” Philbin as expected entrants.

NYBD has a picture

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