The IFOCE announced today that the only “marathon” event on its slate, the nine pound Barrick burger contest, will be held in January at the Plaza hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Sonya Thomas considers the Barrick burger her hardest contest ever and the only contest in which she utilized all her stomach capacity. She ate the bun first last year but plans to eat the meat first the next contest.

In this forum thread, a Florida resident, swtpup, boasts about his 119 pound girlfriend’s eating ability and it is suggested that she try the Barrick burger as a suitable test for her appetite on their next trip to Las Vegas.

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The Daily Pennysylvanian has a contest write up of the first “Wing 5” collegiate qualifer which was won by Tim “Dr. Slob” Cusice of West Chester College with 61 chicken wings in 10 minutes.

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The local cable news channel NY1 has their entire archive of articles and video clips freely available including their coverage of the last six Nathan’s hot dog eating contests, of which the five most recent were dominated by Kobayashi. Other Japanese eaters swept the top 3 slots of the 2000 contest, including Takako Akasaka who smashed the female record. The 2000 contest clip has a flashback to the 1999 contest in which Steve Keiner (now residing in Prague) was not penalized for an early start. Other covered contests include Brian Seiken’s 2002 pickle contest victory, the AICE foot long contest held Memorial Day weekend and several contests won by Eric “Badlands” Booker and Ed “Cookie” Jarvis. (Real Player is required to view the videos)

NY1 eating contest clips/articles June 2003-December 2005
NY1 eating contest clips/articles January 2000-June 2003

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After only 2 of the first 6 or 7 hopeful competitors successfully completed their qualifying stunts (and one of those two was Rich LeFevre) it appears that the degree of difficulty of the qualifying stunts has been loosened. A recent successful stunt involved eating a pound of cookie dough in four minutes and another required eating two meatball subs in five minutes.

Beautiful Brian Seiken has an article about the degree of difficulty for Wing Bowl 14 qualifying stunts.

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A hot dog eating contest for Duke University students Tuesday was won by senior Tom Eberly who defeated last year’s champion Adedayo Adeniran with a result of 15 hot dogs in 4:21. Ms. Adeniran (who shows that great petite eaters do not need to be Asian) consumed 11 hot dogs in that time, a considerable improvement from last year’s result of 10 hot dogs in 6:22. Eberly’s graduation will give Adedayo the opportunity to regain the title next year.

There is no word on whether the champion will face off with the best hot dog eater from UNC.

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It has been over two days since the meatball contest in Atlantic City and I have yet to find any media coverage of the event other than one AP photo, but that is irrelevant because Liz Kellermeyer and Krista Overby of the urbanhonking.com food blog attended that event and their contest write up is vastly better than any competition coverage I have ever seen in the mainstream media. They interviewed most of the competitors, including the non-favorites and gained access to the counting room where the amounts eaten were tallied. They also have a photo gallery with 99 pictures of the contest. Their post contest pictures of Sonya Thomas will make you wonder where she puts it all, as Bubba Yarbrough did in a comment in the previous post.

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From IFOCE.com & sonyatheblackwidow.com & Bubba Yarbrough

Meatballs, Carmine’s at the Tropicana, Atlantic City, NJ
1. Sonya Thomas 10.3 lb
2. Joey Chestnut 8.3
3. Bob Shoudt 7.6
4. Tim Janus 7.0
5. Rich Lefevre 6.8
6. Chip Simpson 6.0
7.Bubba Yarbrough 5.3
8. Larry McNeil 5.1
9. Allen Goldstein 5.0
10. Ken from MD (bouncer) 4.0
11. Brian Seiken 3.3
12.Kevin Lipsitz N3.1
13. Adam Leffler 1.9 – retired afterward
14. Crazy Legs Conti DQ

12/7 12:42 am results updated from writeup on beautifulbrian.com – Brian’s gallery

If there was any debate on whether Sonya Thomas should be ranked #2 going into 2006, she removed it with a dominating performance which gave her a 2 contest winning streak to offset her 2 contest losing streak from November. She almost doubled her amount from the 6 pounds which won her the title in 2004. “Humble” Bob Shoudt continues his strong drive for a top 5 ranking.

Links to articles will be added as they come online. Brian Seiken will probably have a more complete list of finishers.

Updated 8:43 pm iirraa has already uploaded a 6 picture photo gallery of the contest.

Updated 12/4 10:55 pm Yahoo news has an AP photo of the contest

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Philly.com’s Wing Bowl page mentions that Rich “The Locust” LeFevre qualified for the Wing Bowl this morning by eating 12 cans of Vienna sausage in 5 minutes at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City. A video of Rich’s qualification is available on that page. I am not sure that the Wing Bowl organizers expected a skinny ex-accountant from Las Vegas to be the favorite (assuming Joey Chestnut does not attempt to qualify) when they barred previous competitors from entering.

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“Humble” Bob Shoudt and “Eater X” Tim Janus were the first to conquer the “Pauliesaurus” megapizza from Paulie’s Pizza in New Brunswick, NJ, winning them a prize of $350. Beautiful Brian has a writeup of their evening on his website.

With the vanquishing of the Pauliesaurus, notable unconquered eating challenges include:

• Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 15 pound Belly Buster burger
• Clinton Station Diner’s 50 pound (4 person team) Mount Olympus burger and 12 pound Zeus burger
• The Rockford (MI) Corner bar’s 42.5 chili dogs in 4 hours. The current record has been held by Sharon Scholten, a 110 pound woman, for almost a quarter century. If this mark is bested, it is debatable if the victor should have an asterisk if he/she does not eat a giant Mexican lunch before like Sharon did. (As far as I know, Ms. Scholten’s mark is the most hot dogs ever eaten by a woman in a single session, but Sonya Thomas might change that on July 4, 2006)

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Qualifying for Wing Bowl 14 has begun with T Bone Tony’s attempt to eat 3 pounds of sirloin in 9 minutes 30 seconds. Philly.com’s Wing Bowl Page will have information and videos of all the qualifying attempts. Philadelphia area college students can qualify without performing a stunt by winning one of several contests to be held near Philadelphia area colleges. (Could this be Kate Stelnick’s opportunity to return to competitive eating?)

The Wing Bowl Rules explicitly ban AICE members. It is difficult to discern what the Wing Bowl gains from its association with IFOCE, as its most popular members are prevented from competing by the ban on previous entrants and all the publicity and qualifying for the event is handled by WIP.

Chip Simpson is probably the favorite if he decides to qualify. Brian Subich and Pat Philbin are other IFOCE members to watch. (This assumes that no IFOCE members from outside the northeast enter.)

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(Thanks Patrick Bertoletti) GoldenPalaceEvents.com has a page about their turkey eating contest held on Thanksgiving eve with a video clip and a few pictures.

On the turkey contest page goldenpalace.com announces their intention to sponsor future eating events. They should probably either schedule the final for the grilled cheese eating contest or distribute the promised $20K in bonus money before they set up any other future contests since it has been over a month since the last grilled cheese qualifier was held.

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Two articles about the Verizon VoiceWing Buffalo wing finals in Boston have come out almost two weeks after the contest. The Christian Science Monitor has a general overview of competitive eating centered around that event. The Medford Transcript has an interview with Matt Kelley, who appeared in the finals without qualifying thanks to a exemption reserved for locals.

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Reuters has an article and video about Wednesday’s goldenpalace.com turkey eating contest in New York City which was won by Sonya Thomas. Sonya claims the wings were quite dry. Joey Chestnut came in second and Chip Simpson continued his impressive debut with a third place finish.

IFOCE.com has full results of the contest.

Updated 11/24 9:12 AM

The Pittsburg Post-Gazette has an article about the contest focusing on Quaker Staters Chip Simpson and Bob Shoudt.

An AP video of the contest is also available from the Virginia-Pilot (I am not sure if it is the same as the Reuters video.)

Updated 3:18 PM
AP article and photo available (from abcnews.com)

Updated 11/25 12:04 am
Channel 4 (UK) video clip available

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New York Magazine has a short preview of Wednesday’s goldenpalace.com turkey contest in New York City.

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Sunday’s Washington Post had an excellent and rather long article about Sonya Thomas and her victory in the Bethesda Verizon VoiceWing qualifier at the end of last month. Registration or bugmenot.com is required.

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Yahoo news has an AP article about Joey Chestnut’s near defeat of Kobayashi at the Krystal Square Off finals. After being tied at 60 Krystals with 37 seconds remaining, Kobayashi consumed 7 burgers while Joey Chestnut only managed one, which he blames on failing to immerse one of the burgers in water. Kobayashi claims he had difficulty moving his arms fast enough despite his muscularity.

A video of that contest is available on the article page.

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Bret Douglas has a very nice photo gallery of the 2005 Krystal finals. Sonya does not look extremely happy with her third place check.

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Krystal Square Off finals, Chattanooga, TN
1. Takeru Kobayashi, 67 burgers
2. Joey Chestnut, 62 burgers
3. Sonya Thomas, 56 burgers
4. Bob Shoudt, 51 burgers
5. Rich Lefevre 42 burgers
6. Tim Janus 41 burgers
7. Eric “Badlands” Booker 40 burgers
8T. Ron Koch 37 burgers
8T. Pat Bertoletti 37 burgers
10. Sam Vise 35 burgers

more complete results from beautifulbrian.com added 11/20 11:36 pm

For the first time in his competitive career, Kobayashi trailed for a longer period in a contest than he was ahead for. He was able to overcome a deficit in the final minute which at one point was six burgers. Kobayashi’s mark is two less than the 69 he ate last year.

AFP article about the contest
WDEF article about the contest

Pound for pound results:
1. Sonya Thomas 56 / 100 = .56
2. Takeru Kobayashi 67 / 170 = .39
3. Joey Chestnut 62 / 210 = .30

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(From IFOCE.com) Kobayashi weighed in at 172 pounds. His added mass is surprising as he blamed increasing his weight to the 140s from the 130s last year for his not breaking the record at Nathan’s in 2005. Kobayashi’s weight increase makes Sonya Thomas the world’s greatest eater pound for pound by a considerable margin.

A third wild card slot was added to the field, enabling Hall Hunt to compete. Jane magazine writer Claudine Ko will also appear thanks to a sponsor’s exemption.

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WJZ has an article and video of the Baltimore Pancake Eating Contest at Pete’s Grill. The year of the college student in competitive eating has apparently extended to non-IFOCE events, as Johns Hopkins students Johnny Chang and Emma Gregory won the men’s and women’s divisions. Emma Gregory is also a member of the Johns Hopkins swimming team.

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CBS News has a video of the Verizon VoiceWing finals held in Boston Saturday.

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The Elk River (Minnesota) Star has a profile of Jenny Olson who is not only a volleyball star, but also a pudding eating champion, consuming 16 plates of pudding in 3 minutes.

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From IFOCE.com:

Patrick Bertoletti 30 burgers
Don “Moses” Lerman 26 burgers
Shawn Kessler 25 burgers

All qualifier winners:

Joey Chestnut and Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough are the wild cards and Takeru Kobayashi returns as defending champion.

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from “Beautiful” Brian Seiken:

1. Joey Chestnut 4.2 lbs
2. Cookie Jarvis 3.7lbs
3. Bob Shoudt 3.4.
4. Sonya Thomas 3.2
T4 . Chip Simpson 3.2

Sonya Thomas finishes out of the top three for the first time since Nathan’s 2003 I believe and is beaten by Cookie Jarvis for the first time in over a year. With her loss to Badlands Booker in the Buffalo Wing Festival Labor Day weekend, I wonder if the trauma of the 2005 Wing Bowl has resulted in psychological difficulties in chicken wing contests for her.

The Boston Herald has an article about the contest but does not give many results.

Updated 11/15 11:56 pm. Boston Globe article

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ESPN.com’s Page 2 has a list of its top five articles for 2004-2005 which includes an article on the 2005 Wing Bowl, “The Worst Event Ever” by Jim Caple.

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