from sonyatheblackwidow.com and Lucky Chestnut

Hot Springs International Corned Beef Eating Championship, Hot Springs, Arkansas

1. Pat Bertoletti, 11 sandwiches in 10 minutes, $3,000
2. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, 10.75 sandwiches, $1,500 – beat Sonya Thomas in 2 minute overtime by .1 ounce
3. Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas 10.75 sandwiches, $500 – lost overtime
4. Chip Simpson 10? sandwiches

Congratulations to Patrick Bertoletti for winning his first non-qualifier contest and defeating two eaters ranked in the top three.

Updated 11:06 pm

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The IFOCE circuit resumes today after a six week hiatus in Hot Springs, Arkansas (hometown of former president Bill Clinton) with a corned beef sandwich eating contest. Sonya Thomas and Joey Chestnut are expected to resume their rivalry. Ms. Thomas has a two contest winning streak, but the expected 2005 rookie of the year, Joey Chestnut, had a two contest winning streak before that. The top contenders for 2005 rookie of the year runner up, Pat Bertoletti and Chip Simpson, are also expected to compete.

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nj.com has an article about what Bill “El Wingador” Simmons is doing now that he is unable to compete in Wing Bowl 14. He is opening a restaurant and hopes to compete in Wing Bowl 15. The article mentions Joey Chestnut as a favorite for the contest.

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It has now been 1 year since Kate Stelnick conquered Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s massive 96er burger and no other finishers have been announced in that time despite that restaurant receiving a tremendous amount of publicity. Even if Denny’s made Kate a slightly smaller burger because they thought she had no chance at completing it, as some commenters on this site have stated, finishing an 8-9+ pound burger in her first attempt is an extremely impressive accomplishment.

It would be extremely interesting to see where Kate could have gone in competitive eating if she had decided to pursue it. Even if she has no desire to compete in head to head eating contests, she probably could obtain endorsements and tv appearances solely by destroying restaurant’s eating challenges. Hardee’s thought enough of her feat that they alluded to it in their commercial about Denny’s 4 pound sourdough burger which has never been finished (because it is not on the menu) so Kate herself should probably be able to land appearances in advertisements. A spinoff of Food TV’s Eating with Rachel Ray on $40/day called Eating with Kate Stelnick on $400/day 🙂 could also be envisioned.

Kate’s desire to withdraw from competitive eating is understandable considering her consumption of the 96er resulted in only winnings of $75 (which she donated for tsunami relief) along with a lot of unwanted publicity and numerous rude posts made about her on internet forums (which I hope were not repeated to her face.) If Kate has competed in her last eating contest or challenge, I would like to thank her for showing the world her amazing ability on one instance and wish her the best in her future plans.

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Philly.com has more information about the Wing Bowl movie under development and also announces that a line of Wing Bowl clothing will hit the marketplace before the February 3 contest.

More about the Wing Bowl movie

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PhillyEdge.com has a list of twelve things you need to know about Wing Bowl 14. Bill “El Wingador” Simmons believes that the ban on previous competitors will result in a win for a Philadelphia area eater. Simmons is also writing his autobiography.

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The second “Wing 5” qualifier was held Tuesday night at the Landmark American Tap and Grille in Glassboro, NJ. The contest was only open to Philadelphia area college students. Mike Foster won a place in the Wing Bowl by eating 31 wings in 10 minutes. A video of Foster is available.

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The final for the 2005 series of grilled cheese qualifiers, sponsored by the online casino goldenpalace.com has been scheduled. The event will take place on February 1 in New York City, two days before the Wing Bowl. $20,000 will be distributed to the entrants, with the winner receiving $8,000. Competitors will attempt to break Joey Chestnut’s record of 32.5 sandwiches in 10 minutes.

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On Thursday it will be one year since it was announced that Kate Stelnick, a TCNJ student weighing less than 120 pounds, was the first person to finish a 10-11 pound 96er burger from Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, PA in under 3 hours. Ms. Stelnick claimed to have no previous competitive eating experience or training and has not attempted another eating contest or challenge since that time. The new poll question is designed to determine how legitimate the competitive eating community considers Kate’s feat.

Updated 1/10 2:56 pm I have started a new poll given that Kate Stelnick’s comment on this entry makes this question moot.

Previous poll results: Who will be the top ranked US eater at the end of 2006

Joey Chestnut -> 55%
Other -> 29%
Sonya Thomas -> 17%

Total Votes: 42

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Hank the Tank attempted to circumvent Wing Bowl 14’s ban of previous competitors by unsuccessfully disguising himself as the “Kensington Klown.” (Brian Seiken would probably claim that all Wing Bowl 14 entrants from the Delaware Valley are clowns regardless of whether they wear makeup.)

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Rich LeFevre will not be the only member of a competitive eating couple appearing in Wing Bowl 14. Melissa beat her husband to obtain a berth in the February 3 contest. Beating her stunt’s time limit (which is not clear on the video) required a very serious amount of “chipmunking.”

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Every year before the Rose Bowl, the teams playing in that game have a Prime Rib eating contest at Lawry’s Steakhouse called the Beef Bowl. The teams dine during separate sessions and then their total amount eaten is tallied up and compared. Texas ate 740 pounds of steak at their dinner (the size of their party is not given). The totals for USC have not officially been released yet, but it is claimed that they tied with the Longhorns.

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The Sheboygan Press lists Sonya Thomas’ victory as one of the most interesting local events of 2005. They have a picture of Sonya at that contest.

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The East Valley Tribune has an article about a 7 pound burger eating contest between teams of consisting of three fans from Notre Dame and Ohio State. Both teams failed to finish the burger, (which is smaller than the burger that Sonya Thomas finished in 48 minutes in the Barrick burger contest) but the Notre Dame team was awarded victory because it finished more of the burger.

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Lisa, a South Jersey resident who goes to graduate school in Canada, was extremely impressed by Joey Chestnut’s Wing Bowl qualifying stunt of drinking a gallon of milk in under a minute. Lisa’s father has tickets to the Wing Bowl.

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katestelnick.com has a video clip (2.4 MB 4:27 low quality) from Food TV’s Unwrapped about the Ye Olde 96er burger from Denny’s Beer Pub in Clearfield, PA. That sandwich is generally listed at 11 pounds, but it actually weighs in at 10 pounds when it is placed on a scale. The clip shows how the 96er is constructed and it also has footage of an AICE contest held at Denny’s in the summer of 2004 that in which “Chowhound” Chapman and Coondog O’Karma participated. Seeing the clip last January reportedly inspired Kate Stelnick to be the first person to complete it in under three hours several days later.

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This blog entry has a brief mention of Sonya Thomas’ Radar Magazine interview, but it has a long comment by someone who met Sonya at the 2004 Bacci Pizza contest in Chicago and also chauffeured the LeFevres during that event.

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While the San Francisco Bay area will not produce a Super Bowl winner in 2006 (or apparently many years into the future), the odds that of that region producing a champion in Wing Bowl 14 greatly increased when San Jose State student Joey “Jaws” Chestnut qualified by drinking a gallon of milk in 41 seconds Monday morning (philly.com video) . (The other favorite for the Wing Bowl, Rich LeFevre, lived in suburban San Francisco before retiring to Las Vegas several years ago). Chestnut has made five trips to the eastern time zone since the start of November to pursue his competitive eating career. It will be interesting to see if Wing Bowl 15 has geographic restrictions in addition to prohibiting previous competitors to ensure that a local wins the contest.

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from competitiveeaters.com/news.htm

Zan’s Deli, Lake Grove, Long Island, NY

1st – Ian “The Invader” Hickman, 21 latkes in 8 minutes
2nd – “Skinny” Scott Soifer
3rd – Chris “The American” Schlesinger
4th – Mike “The Real Skinny” Hoffman
5th – Elihu “Cissy” Godbolt (African-American female from Omaha)

No sign of Angela Michaud from the contest pictures.

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AICE has updated their rankings (only the top 23 have been changed, #24 and below are exactly the same as the October rankings) and eaters to watch with profiles of Michael “The Mongoose” Dodd and Angela Michaud. Ms. Michaud was the only female to crack the top 3 of an IFOCE or AICE event in 2005 (at last month’s hot dog contest in Ontario) other than Sonya Thomas and Carlene LeFevre and she will compete in tommorow’s latke contest in Long Island. There is also a profile of Joel “The Cannon” Podelsky from the New Jersey Jewish News.

Joe Menchetti will not appear at the latke contest (he will be reselling tickets for the UConn-UNH game) or the zucchini contest next month and casts doubt on whether he will compete in any AICE event in the future.

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WIP announced that the Wing Bowl ticket revenues will be used to help construct a basketball court for the Sonny Hill Community Involvement Basketball League. The location of the court has not been determined.

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Two new articles in the Rockford Squire and the Advance about Balinda Gould’s feat of eating 43 chili dogs in 4 hours, which beat the 23 year old record set by Sharon Scholten/VanDuinen, are now available.

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Duncan Scott Davidson, a writer for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, has a report of his experience as a competitor in the San Francisco Verizon VoiceWing buffalo wing qualifier held at Knuckle’s sports bar in October. In that contest, Rich LeFevre defeated Cookie Jarvis in double overtime. Davidson managed 1.97 pounds of meat in 10 minutes. If you are interested in who won the $250 third prize, which was never listed at IFOCE.com, it was triathlete Chris Coble.

updated 6:03 – URL fixed, thanks Andrew Lane

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(from competitiveeaters.com/news.htm) Balinda Gould, a 41 year old single mother who works part-time in at deli counter, broke Sharon Scholten’s 23 year old record of 42.5 chili dogs in 4 hours by a half a hot dog at the Rockford Corner Bar in Rockford, Michigan. Ms. Gould had apparently not eaten competitively before except for two attempts at the record in November in which she consumed 20 and 28 hot dogs.

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The Philly Cheese Steak Shoppe, with two locations on the northern California coast, has a challenge involving a three foot long cheesesteak . Eaters who succesfully finish the sandwich in under two hours will qualify for a contest to be held at the end of the year. (It is not mentioned if the meal is free for those who finish it in time.) The winner of that competition will be awarded free cheesesteaks for a year and be featured in the restaurant’s advertising. The best time recorded in the challenge so far is 40 minutes by Bill Telnes.

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