The new poll asks how many of the 13 Nathan's qualifiers in 2012 will have a female winner eating ten or more hot dogs. In 2011, seven women broke the 10 HDB threshold. Two of those qualifier winners (Stephanie Torres and Grace Lee) are not expected to compete in the 2012 qualifiers and Sonya Thomas might receive a bye as the defending female champion. Among IFOCE female rookies, Meredith Boxberger and Rebecca Oey appear capable of hitting double digits and Julie Dey ate 12 hot dogs in the 2009 Minnesota qualifier.
Nathan’s 2012 qualifier registration opens
Registration for the 2012 Nathan’s qualifiers (except Naples, FL) are now open on the contest pages on IFOCE.com. The Calgary qualifier is open to everyone regardless of citizenship.
Wild card berths will be awarded to both the top male and female runner-ups. Dee Martin would have taken last year’s women wild card with 9 HDB if it was awarded.
2012 Nathan’s circuit announced
The 2012 Nathan’s Famous qualifier schedule has just been announced. The first qualifier will be held at a Detroit K Mart on April 21. Registration will open Thursday at 11 am eastern.
- Apr 21 Detroit, MI (first Michigan IFOCE contest since a 2009 calamari contest)
- Apr 28 Las Vegas, NV
- May 12 Naples, FL (first Florida qualifier since 2009, Rebecca Oey’s pro debut?)
- May 19 Atlantic City, NJ
- June 2 Queens, NY
- June 2 Calgary, AB (was on 2011 circuit, but cancelled)
- June 3 St. Paul, MN (first northern Central time zone qualifier since 2009, return of Julie Dey?)
- June 7 Cleveland, OH (1 of 2 weekday qualifiers, Pittsburgh is the other)
- June 9 Tempe, AZ
- June 10 Thackerville, OK
- June 13 Pittsburgh, PA (somewhat surprising Detroit, Cleveland & Pittsburgh would all be on the circuit)
- June 16 Charlotte, NC
- June 23 Boston, MA
Notable dropped sites include California (leaving the circuit with no locations west of Las Vegas) and Atlanta. There have been California and Atlanta-area qualifiers since 2003.
The schedule says Sonya Thomas will attempt to defend her status as female champion, so apparently the women’s division will return. The minimum a qualifier winner needs to have his or her New York City travel expenses paid for was not specified.
Rich Shea hints that there might be a Nathan's qualifier in Minnesota's 2nd most populous city (St. Paul) in 2012. A Minneapolis/St. Paul area Nathan's qualifier was held from 2005-2009. The new poll asks what city that previously held a qualifier (but was not on the 2011 circuit) would you most like to see regain a qualifier.
A judgeship in the Nathan's finals is available in United for Lung Cancer's charity auction. Bidding (minimum $300) will open tomorrow and close on November 17. The item page says the bidding is for the July, 4 2011 contest and is illustrated with a picture of Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi (who will probably not compete in the 2012 finals). (via kNOwLungCancer)
Don Lerman has posted his account of the 2001 Nathan's finals. Don believes he should have finished third in that contest behind Takeru Kobayashi and Kaz Arai.
Two contests will award trips to the 2012 Nathan's finals. Specialty Food Group is running a sweepstakes that will award a trip for four to the 2012 finals and the St. Paul Saints will award a trip on July 23 for two to a person who tweets a picture of a wiener from the grill.
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