updated 5:15 pm with more results

From the Duluth Superior
1. Takeru Kobayashi, 58 bratwurst in 10 minutes
2. Joey Chestnut 45 bratwurst
3. Pat Bertoletti 39 bratwurst
4. Bob Shoudt 38.5 bratwurst
5. Tim Janus 37 bratwurst
6. Sonya Thomas 34 bratwurst

Kobayashi broke Sonya’s old record about halfway through the contest and had a 9 brat lead with 1:40 left, so he did not need a last minute comeback as he did in his last two contests against Joey Chestnut.

Updated 8/7 1:14 am – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article

Updated 8/7 10:49 am – Sheboygan Press contest writeup
Sheboygan Press festival writeup
Sheboygan Press photo gallery – has some good fan signs

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Sheboygan Times opening day report & festival schedule
Sheboygan Times pro contest editorial
Erik “the Red” Denmark radio interview podcast

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The Sheboygan Times has a preview of Saturday’s Johnsonville Bratwurst Eating contest and Brat Days. The Violent Femmes will play a concert on Saturday night.

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The Johnsonville Bratwurst contest from Sheboygan, WI will be televised on ESPN starting at 4 pm eastern (I think the contest itself will be tape delayed) The program will last an hour and it will be interesting to see what fills the remaining 50 minutes. The contest will be rerun twice on ESPN2.

From Yahoo TV

2006 Brat Eating World Championship
ESPN Aug 05 04:00pm
Special/Sports, 60 Mins.

* 2006 Brat Eating World Championship – Final, ESPN2 Aug 05 07:00pm
* 2006 Brat Eating World Championship – Final, ESPN2 Aug 06 02:00am

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The Sheboygan Times has an editorial on the Johnsonville bratwurst contest which is generally positive.

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The Sheboygan Press reports that ESPN will broadcast the finals of the Johnsonville Bratwurst contest on August 5 at 4 pm Eastern. Kobayashi will compete in the contest. Press Release

Updated 1:34 PM – registration for the 20 person lottery for the last five entrants to that contest is now open.

7/13 1:31 AM – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article

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The Sheboygan Press has an article previewing the Sheboygan Jaycees Brat Day Festival to be held in early August and the bratwurst eating contest is on the schedule contrary to Clarence Mertz’s efforts. For competitive eaters/fans who are fans of alternative music, the Violent Femmes will appear at the festival. The full schedule of the contest will be announced on April 8.

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The Sheboygan Press reports that the Sheboygan Common Council has unanimously voted to file (which I assume means reject) Clarence Mertz’s request for the city to hold an advisory referendum asking if the bratwurst contest should continue. Mertz can apparently resubmit his referendum request in 2007.

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The Sheboygan Press has an editorial supporting Clarence Mertz’s efforts to put a referendum about the bratwurst eating contest on the ballot. The column stops short of agreeing with Mertz that the contest should be banned. A referendum in 1966 did result in the termination of the bratwurst festival due to excessive drunkenness.

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Mike Nichols of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a column in favor of the Sheboygan bratwurst contest. He would consider banning the contest if it used Chicago style hot dogs. George Shea and Chowhound Chapman are both quoted and they have diverging opinions on the frequency of vomiting in contests. Nichols says that Oleg Zhornitskiy’s mayonaisse eating record is much more disgusting than the bratwurst contest.

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The undelicious blog, a food blog based in southeastern Wisconsin, does not agree with Clarence Mertz’s claim that his referendum would pass by a 10:1 ratio.

Mertz’s requested referendum has put competitive eating in the news during a period of few contests. Many newspapers have picked up the AP article about the contest.

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This column by Rick Horowitz from 1997 states that Clarence Mertz has been trying to stop the Sheboygan Bratwurst Eating Contest for almost a decade. In 1996, only five local competitors entered and the vomiting = disqualification rule was not in effect.

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The Sheboygan Press reports than Clarence Mertz, a former Sheboygan city attorney, has requested that the city hold a referendum to decide if the city will continue to hold the Johnsonville Bratwurst contest during the Bratwurst Days Festival. The contest is sponsored by the Sheboygan Jaycee’s and not the city of Sheboygan, so it is not clear what authority the city has to prohibit the contest. The festival generated a $30,000 profit last year and lost money before it had a sanctioned bratwurst contest.

Updated 11:07 AM
The Duluth News Tribune has an AP article about the dispute which mentions that Sheboygan County Clerk Julie Glancey said it was too late to get an advisory referendum on the April ballot. The next possible referendum could not occur until September, one month after the August contest.

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The Washington Redskins are no longer the only NFL team to have one of its members lose an eating contest to a thin woman if this live journal entry is correct. Unfortunately no details are provided about the contest or its participants besides the fact that the winner received $300.

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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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CBS news has videos of both the Sheboygan bratwurst and Hong Kong dumpling contests. Johnny Wu finished only 7 dumplings behind Kobayashi’s total of 83 in that contest.

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The AP has released an article about the bratwurst contest over 24 hours after the contest finish. It exhibits the sloppiness often found in AP articles, claiming the grilled cheese contest was the day before when it took place three days earlier.

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From www.sonyatheblackwidow.com:

Johnsonville Brat-Eating World Championship, 6 Aug 05, Sheboygan, WI 10 minutes

1. Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, 35 Brats
2. Joey Chestnut: 34 ½ Brats
3. Rich “The Locust: LeFevre: 30 Brats

Update 10:44pm Article from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Update August 8 9:57pm Article from Green Bay Press Gazette
Update August 9 9:00pm PhillyBurbs.com column

Sonya had to come from behind to defeat Joey Chestnut (and Rich Lefevre in the San Diego grilled cheese contest) . This makes it six months since she has lost a contest to someone besides Kobayashi. Her defeat at the February 4 Wing Bowl was marked by controversy and it may have been due to incorrectly judging the amount of wings she ate. The only other contest she has lost to someone besides Kobayashi in the past twelve months was a baked bean contest in November in which the beans were overheated. You have to go back to Nathan’s last year to find the last instance someone besides Kobayashi (Nobuyuki Shirota) defeated Sonya in a non-controversial contest.

Sonya and Joey Chestnut broke IFOCE’s bratwurst record of 19.5 a little after the midway point in the contest. She was in good enough condition at the end of the contest to eat an additional bratwurst after time expired (the same could not be said for Joey Chestnut)

Sonya’s next contest will probably be at the lobster festival in Maine August 13. This will give her contests in two of the four corners of the country in ten days.

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The Sheboygan Press has an article about the Johnsonville Bratwurst contest in which Sonya Thomas will compete in on Saturday. There are a few quotes in the article, one in which Sonya claims that big guys still doubt her capabilities.

This will be the third type of sausage that Sonya has eaten competitively in a little over two months. She ate Vienna sausauges in Charlotte in late May and hot dogs at Nathan’s on July 4.

The only other top eater listed as having committed to the bratwurst contest is Tim Janus, setting up a rematch of the US Open semifinal.

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