Liz K has posted her report from the 2007 Nathan’s finals from Coney Island. Arturo Rios, Jr. received the 2007 IFOCE Rookie of the Year award before the contest. There are also galleries from the weigh-in and contest.

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Kobayashi has a bilingual blog entry about his second place finish in Wednesday’s Nathan’s finals:

I believe that the satisfaction one feels in competition is not purely derived from a result of victory or defeat. I can say that I am happy to have challenged a seventh consecutive win. From today on I will focus on treating my condition without getting too anxious. And I will definitely go for the next world record. Even if the pressure of it all crushes me.

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Brian Seiken has written an article about his thwarted quest for a higher level pass at the Nathan’s finals Wedneseday.

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Will Leitch, the blogger for Deadspin, has posted a long report from the Nathan’s finals. Leitch accepted a press pass for the first time. There is also a gallery, which includes a picture of Don Lerman with a mystery friend.

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The splash page for ifoce.com announces that Joey Chestnut will compete in the P’Zone contest to be held in New York City on July 10. I am not sure if this means that Joey & Kobayashi will compete in that event or if Kobayashi has withdrawn.

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Michael David Smith of AOL Fanhouse interviewed Richard Shea this morning:

International Federation of Competitive Eating rules are clear about reversals: Vomiting equals disqualification. Kobayashi’s official total should have been zero.

But it wasn’t. It was 63. Why? I put that question to Major League Eating President Richard Shea in a telephone interview this morning, and he told me this:

“The judges’ ruling was that the reversal occurred after the buzzer. They also didn’t characterize it as a full reversal because it didn’t hit the table.”

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Kobayashi has the following quote in today’s New York Times wrap-up of Nathan’s contest.

Mr. Kobayashi bowed and was humble in defeat. But he also pointed straight at Mr. Chestnut and yelled, “I will definitely beat him next year.”

It is not clear how Kobayashi will gain entry into the 2008 finals since he no longer receives a bye as defending champion and no qualifier was held in Tokyo this year.

Other post contest links
SJ Mercury article about Joey Chestnut’s victory – Joey will attend Kobayashi’s P’Zone exhibition next week.
Joey Chestnut podcast on KCBS
Erik Denmark article from the Seattle Times
WNBC article and raw video
Video clip of Kobayashi’s reversal from theblogofhilarity (via thebiglead.com)
audience video showing what was going on during the last commercial break from cyber fyber
news video from News 12 Brooklyn
Gothamist blog entry
Observations from Megamunch about ESPN censorship – the reversal was not mentioned on SportsCenter either
Commentary from Wing Tut

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Beautifulbrian’s Corner Nathans Coney Island wrap up
NY Times article – longer version of NY Times article below
NY1 article and video
amNY article
AP column on MSNBC
Deadspin blog entry
FoxSports blog entry
AOL Sports blog entry #1
AOL Sports blog entry #2
Wackbag.com gallery thread Badlands Booker appears to have lost a considerable amount of weight. There is also a picture of Don Lerman receiving his award
Wackbag.com forum thread
NY Daily News preview – Curtis Sliwa accuses current eaters of cheating
Santa Fe Reporter – pre-contest interview with Pat Bertoletti

Joe Delaney, the name on Pat Bertoletti’s headband, was the name of pats grandpa who passed away a few weeks corrected July 5

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A video starting with five minutes remaining in the Nathan’s finals and continuing until the end of the broadcast can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V-2NKUlzns Kobayashi appears to have a minor reversal with about 40 seconds left.

Yahoo has local news video clips from WCBS (from the Hangman)

The Hangman also has some video captures on his website.

(From Billy of supersizedmeals) news.com.au has a picture of Kobayashi’s reversal. Someone has said that Kobayashi should not have been DQed because he caught all the food before it hit the floor or table, but the picture makes clear that some material escaped.

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Nathan’s Finals results

1. Joey Chestnut 66 HDB (listed at 63 when contest ended), $10000
2. Takeru Kobayashi 63 HDB (appeared to have a reversal near contest end), $5000
3. Pat Bertoletti 49 HDB, $2500
4. Tim “Eater X” Janus 43.5 HDB, $1500
5. Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas: 39 HDB (new female record, breaks 37 HDB plateau), $1000
6. Bob Shoudt 35 HDB
6. Chip Simpson 35 HDB
8. Rich LeFevre 31 HDB
9. Hall Hunt: 29 HDB
10. Juliet Lee 26 HDB (finals record for rookie female)
11. Dale Boone 25 HDB
12. Pat Philbin 24 HDB
13. Crazy Legs Conti 23.5 HDB
14. Erik “the Red” Denmark 23 HDB
15. Tim Brown 22.5 HDB
16. Arturo Rios, Jr. 21 HDB
16. Allen “Shredder” Goldstein 21 HDB

update Full results are available on IFOCE. The IFOCE report mentions neither Kobayashi’s possible reversal nor Joey’s “phantom” extra 3 HDB. The reported attendance is 50,000.

NYTimes.com has an article mentioning the post contest jump in Joey Chestnut’s result. You would think that scraps would result in a deduction and not an increment:

After both men appeared to finish with 63 hot dogs eaten, the judges spent several minutes in a somewhat bizarre recount. To determine a winner, the judges counted the scraps left on the plates.

The liveblog of the telecast follows after the jump
Read the rest of this entry »

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Will Leitch, the main writer for the sports/athlete gossip blog Deadspin, will attend the Nathan’s finals and post about the contest on Thursday.

In the comments, someone says that the Coors ad starring Kobayashi is now being televised.

While watching the Sopranos edit on A&E last nite, lo and behold–right in the middle of the show, what pops up but a Coors Light commercial starring none other than Kobayashi himself!

I view this as a good omen to his continued mastery of the Nathan’s contest–go, Tsunami, go!

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WCBS has an article and video of today’s weigh in for the Nathan’s finals. Kobayashi says that he is still undecided on whether he will compete tomorrow.

amNY also has an article about the weigh in which says that 17 eaters will compete, so Kobayashi will be the eater from outside the United States present.

update
NY1 has an article and video of the weigh in
Gothamist has a blog entry containing a picture of Kobayashi opening his mouth rather widely
The NY Times blog has an entry describing Dale Boone’s current project:

Dale Boone said he spends several months a year in India, where he is filming “House of Brahmins,” a romantic comedy about an ethnically mismatched couple. “America guy comes to India, runs into a Brahmin girl,” Mr. Boone explained. “You want both sides to laugh at the same time. It’s a very hard thing to do.”

update #2
Brian Seiken has a video of the entire weigh in
MSNBC has an AP article and Darren Rovell video
myfoxNY has an article with four videos and a slideshow
FoxSports has a column (from MegaMunch)

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From a Patrick Holbert email:

I’m throwing a party Friday night at The Underscore in NYC. Would you mind plugging this event on the blog since Badlands will be performing? I’m performing as well as my alter-ego Pat Miscellaneous. I’m a huge fan of competitive eating so I’m really excited that Badlands is on board for this show.

The Clams are playing as well and these guys are a riot. It’s going to be a really fun time so I’m trying to get everyone in the CE community to come out and have a good time.

www.myspace.com/badlandsbooker
www.myspace.com/patmiscellaneous
www.myspace.com/theclamsmusic
www.theunderscore.com

Badlands will go on around 10pm.

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NYPost.com has an article about roommates Crazy Legs Conti and Tim “Eater X” Janus.

Best friends “Crazy Legs” Conti and Timothy “Eater X” Janus rigged their kitchen to emulate the famed Coney Island eatery, installing a replica of Nathan’s industrial grill, a red leather banquette, and red neon signs. They even replaced glassware with Nathan’s disposable cups.

Signs of their obsession are on every imaginable surface: the Oyster Eating belt, tiramisu trophy, and 40 other plaques and prizes from eating contests.

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The New York Times has an article assessing Kobayashi’s impact on competitive eating.

If Kobayashi loses, the contest runs the risk of losing its marquee star.

“People are attracted to the game by individuals, but then they become more familiar with the game and so there’s a path from being a fan of an individual to being a fan of the sport,” Mandelbaum said. “But I’m not sure if people watch this for the same reason people watch sports.”

Ruth passed the mantle of stardom in baseball to Lou Gehrig, among others, leaving baseball significantly stronger than it was when he started. Time will show whether the interest in hot dog-eating competitions will continue, but having Chestnut around to succeed Kobayashi may be important to keep fans watching.

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Historical weather data from JFK airport (which presumably is the same as the weather on Coney Island) is available at wunderground.com. Using this archive, it is difficult to discern any connection between the weather and Kobayashi’s performance at the Nathan’s finals.

(weather data is from approximately 12:50 pm)

2001 50 HDB 71.1 °F / 21.7 °C 93% humidity, overcast
2002 50.5 HDB 96.1 °F / 35.6 °C 40% humidity, partly cloudy
2003 44.5 HDB 81.0 °F / 27.2 °C 72% humidity, clear
2004 53.5 HDB 77.0 °F / 25.0 °C 64% humidity, mostly cloudy
2005 49 HDB 78.1 °F / 25.6 °C 48% humidity, scattered clouds
2006 53.75 HDB 84.9 °F / 29.4 °C 65% humidity, haze

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Brian Seiken has uploaded a video of his 2 minute exhibition with Arturo Rios, Jr. on New York cable to http://hometown.aol.com/beautifulbrian43/msg.html

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(Thanks Brian Cooley) The Chattanooga Times Free Press has an interview with Kobayashi conducted from his hotel in New York City. An audio clip of the interview is available. Kobayashi intends to compete in this fall’s Krystal Square Off IV regardless of whether he participates in the July 4 contest.

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Crazy Legs Conti appears on the front page of today’s amNY newspaper. An article about his training for the Nathan’s finals appears in that issue, along with a slideshow, video and chronology of hot dog eating innovations which lists Conti’s new technique

2007- Crazy Legs Conti turns the bun inside out for greater dunking surface area and calls the technique “Reverse Bunning.”

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The New York Times blog has an entry about Kobayashi which mentions today’s Nathan’s qualifier held in Manhattan. The qualifier is called the Civil Service qualifier, but the winner was not a goverment worker:

At noon today in the food court of the Manhattan Mall in Midtown, Major League Eating held the second-to-last of 13 qualifiers for next week’s Nathan’s contest. Seven men took part; the winner was Arturo Rios Jr., 30, of Long Branch, N.J., a driver for The Daily News, who consumed 27.5 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes.

Allen Goldstein came in second with 26 HDB, giving him the wild card lead.

Tim Brown has considerable reason to be upset with Rios being allowed to compete, as this denied him the wild card slot.

update NY1 has an article and video about the contest

update #2 Metro and amNY have articles about the contest.

Metro says the contest was “billed as a chance for an “ordinary eater” or civil servant to join next week’s ultra-competitive field” Apparently Rios’ rank of #9 in the current IFOCE poll qualified him as an “ordinary eater”

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Jeannie Moos, who does reports about New York City for CNN, did a segment about Kobayashi’s possible absence from the Nathan’s finals which can be seen at http://www.cnn.com/offbeat/ (video will probably be available only on June 27) Joey Chestnut calls in with a phone interview.

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From an email from Brian Seiken:

Around 5-6PM EST SNY the mets station on cable tv will show MLE hot dog exhibition live . Rios myself and possibly Shredder will take part in i think a one or two minute eatoff. on June 27th tommorow Thought i would pass it on.

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A press release announces a P’Zone eating contest against Takeru Kobayashi:

Coinciding with the return of P’Zone pizza, Pizza Hut will launch a national competition “Dare You to Still Be Hungry” featuring Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi, world leader in competitive eating. Through the contest, consumers can enter for a chance to win a trip to New York to take on legendary eating champion, Kobayashi, in an event sanctioned by Major League Eating (MLE).

To enter, P’Zone pizza fans should visit pizzahut.com, upload a photo of themselves with their favorite P’Zone and write a brief description stating why they are up to the challenge of competing against Kobayashi. The contest deadline for submitting photos is July 1. The face-off with Kobayashi will take place in early July.

Entries are being accepted at http://www.pizzahut.com/vpofpizza/ The rules announce that one amateur with no competitive eating experience will be selected to compete against Kobayashi. The selected eater will receive $5,000 and a trip to New York City.

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From IFOCE.com

From Mattituck Strawberry Festival, Long Island

1. Pat Bertoletti, 15.25 lb. 8 minutes
2. Tim Janus 13.5 lb.
3. Crazy Legs Conti 9.5 lb.
4. “The Greek” (Chris Abatsas?) 8 lb.
5. Brian Seiken 5.5 lb.
6. Jim McCreevey 4.5 lb.
6. Wild Bill Myers 4.5 lb
6. Pete Miernicki 4.5 lb
9 Peter Janus (Tim Janus’ father) 3.5 lb.

update results updated from Brian Seiken’s report a video of the contest is also available

mosesnews.com has a lot of pictures of the contest

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(From R Suzuki) In a blog entry, Kobayashi says he will go for his 7th consecutive Nathan’s championship next month (automatically translated):

Concerning participation, that you think whether there were various stories, but we would like to do the statement which it is clear concerning the conference.

July 4th, with [neisanzu] of NY [koniairando], it enjoys that it has a match.
The highest players who are collected from the world, the fact that the highest tournament is done is promised

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