The current issue of the Brooklyn Papers has an article by Gersh Kuntzman about his experience as Kobayashi’s judge and an interview with the Frankster mascot.

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The website for The Starboard has information about Sunday’s wing contest.

Sunday is the famous WINGS TO GO SUICIDE WING EATING CONTEST!!! In at least our 20th year of this contest, 3pm this Sunday, you can get your chance to win $500 in CASH by eating the most Suicide Wings within the 30 minute time frame. No Drinks, No other Food, just WINGS!! To sign up, be here before 2pm on Sunday, and see our DJ to get yourself signed up for a shot at the title!

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La Costeña will sponsor the “Feel the Heat” Jalapeño Eating Challenge to be held in Chicago on September 16. Registration will open August 1.

Regarding other possible IFOCE September events, it is not clear if the Buffalo Wing Festival will retain its IFOCE affiliation. Registration for the buffet bowl contest does not appear to be handled by IFOCE, and the page for the wing contest brings up an error.

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A video of Tuesday’s P’Zone Challenge is available at http://youtube.com/watch?v=f7O9b8HtpdM WhatPushesMyButtons.com also has a video and pictures.

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(From SonyaTheBlackWidow.com) The KoreAm Journal has a long article about Sonya Thomas with coverage of the Long Beach chili cheese fries contest.

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(from Laura Flynn) The website for the Chinook Winds Casino, the site of this weekend’s rib eating contest, has a video clip of a “Big Bertha” burger contest in which the LeFevres and Joey Chestnut competed. I am not sure what year the contest took place.

update from Rich Lefevre The contest took place in 2007 and the top 3 were:
Joey Chestnut 9:30
Rich LeFevre 9:45
Carlene LeFevre 15:15, first competition in almost 2 years.

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Registration for the second Three Brothers Pizza contest will open on July 13 at noon eastern. The contest will take place on August 18 in Greenbelt, Maryland. There will also be an amateur contest.

Another August IFOCE contest will take place at the Ash Creek Saloon Rib Eating Contest. Joey Chestnut is expected to defend his title. Former WWF/WWE wrestler King Kong Bundy will act as celebrity judge.

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From Gothamist:

So it’s only in the interest of each borough having its own event that we bring you this next story- the 4th Annual Dumpling Eating Contest, taking place on Sunday August 5th as part of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Flushing. For all of those who watched Joey Chestnut eat 66 weenies last week and exclaimed, “Hell, I can do that,” here’s your chance: the Dumpling Eating Contest is accepting registrants until the end of the month.

The contest is two minutes long with prizes of $1000, $500 and $300. Last year’s festival had separate contests for men and women with equivalent prize money for both genders.

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Erik Denmark has written a report about his experience in last week’s Nathan’s finals which includes some interesting information about Joey Chestnuts counters:

I heard from someone who was watching Joey on stage that he was eating from multiple plates at the same time. This was more than likely a ploy to make it difficult for Kobayashi to determine where Chestnut’s actual numbers were at. This was a brilliant tactic by Joey because not only did it confuse Kobayashi, the judges totally messed up his count as well. Joey maintained at least a 3-5 hot dog lead throughout the competition. Joey’s counter was off by as many as 5 hot dogs for the entire second half of the contest when it looked like Kobayashi was catching up. The contest was never tied, not even close. Joey cleared his mouth with amazing ease in about 10 seconds after his final stuff, partly because he was so infuriated with his judge for screwing up his count, he wanted to tell him. If you read Joey’s lips he can be seen clearly telling his counter that his count was off by five repeadtedly when he clears his mouth at the end of the contest.

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A press release about today’s P’Zone exhibition is available.

Chestnut, the #2-ranked eater in the world, consumed 4.82 pounds of P’Zones, six times the amount eaten by Marivic Stewart, the upstart rookie, who could only stomach ¾ of a P’Zone, or .8 pounds. Marivic won the right to compete against Joey, as well as an all-expense paid vacation to New York, after submitting photos and an enthusiastic essay to Pizza Hut’s “Dare You to Still Be Hungry” contest in mid-June.

Kobayashi served as judge. Tim Janus was also present.

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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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After the “Science of Speed Eating” documentary appears on the National Geographic Channel at 9pm eastern and pacific (midnight eastern), the next appearance for competitive eating on cable television might be the Clearfield High football team attempting to eat Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 100+ pound burger on Country Music Television’s “Country Fried Home Videos” on August 17 according to dennysbeerbarrelpub.com

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A gallery of the Nathan’s qualifier held at the Mall of America is available at nathansmoa.com

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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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From today’s Sheboygan Press:

Richard Shea, president of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, said he was surprised when Johnsonville told the group — about six months ago — that the event would not continue. It has been part of the Sheboygan Jaycees-sponsored event each of the last two years.

“We were surprised and we were saddened,” Shea said. “We would have loved to have been there.”

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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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