The Independent of London (UK) has an article about Sonya Thomas at the Baltimore crabcake contest (which does not mention that event took place two months ago) The author also witnesses Sonya’s post-contest meal.

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The following video captures were taken from the video of the goldenpalace.net grilled cheese contest on the contest page at goldenpalaceevents.com after the contest timer expired (around 2:20 – 2:26 in the video)

It is obvious from the video captures that Sonya has a significant amount (probably 1/4 to 1/2 a sandwich) outside her mouth after the contest is finished. I assume that the man with sunglasses and a notepad is a contest official and he apparently took no action after he saw the amount of food outside Sonya’s mouth.

If the chipmunking rule is going to be interpreted liberally, then Sonya has every right to take advantage of that interpretation, but IFOCE should clarify the details of that rule so other eaters can take advantage of it as well.

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The Philadelphia City Paper has a report on last Saturday’s Nathan’s qualifier held at Independence Hall won by Sonya Thomas. (If any root beer float contests are held, do not expect Sonya to participate). The article’s author, Drew Lazor, has an entry on his personal blog in which he list some of the anti-meat statements in the pamphlet he received from the PETA members protesting the contest.

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Liz asked Sonya Thomas a few questions after her victory in the Nathan’s Philadelphia qualifier last Saturday.

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Philly.com has an article about yesterday’s Nathan’s qualifier at Independence Hall and a short interview with Sonya Thomas. Sonya expresses disappointment that she failed to break her personal record of 37 hot dogs.

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Yesterday’s edition of the Washington Post Express has an interview with Sonya Thomas. The article is not available online in HTML format, but the entire issue is available in PDF format. I have made a screen capture of the page that Sonya’s interview is on if you do not want to download the entire document.

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from IFOCE.com, sonyatheblackwidow.com & Brian Seiken

Philadelphia Nathan’s qualifier results, Independence Hall Visitor Center

1) Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas 36.5 hot dogs
2) “Humble” Bob Shoudt 28
3) “Big” Brian Subich 25
4) Pat “from Moonachie” Philbin 24

It used to be that 24 hot dogs would almost certainly guarantee a victory in a qualifier, but that amount did not place in the top three in this event.

Brian Subich turns in an impressive performance and justifies his decision to turn down an arena football contract from the winless Steubenville Stampede.

For the second straight year the amount Sonya Thomas ate in a qualifier was virtually equal to the amount she ate in the previous year’s finals. Sonya set a women’s record with 37 hot dogs in the 2005 finals. She did 32 in last year’s Norfolk qualifier and the 2004 finals.

Updated 6:54 PM – 5th place finisher steakbellie has a first person report of the contest on his blog

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Sonya Thomas’ plans to enter the Nathan’s qualifier in Philadelphia this Saturday have not been changed by the recent addition of two contests this weekend according to this paragraph in philly.com (The paragraph claims that Joey Chestnut is from San Diego, so it is possible that this is inaccurate)

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The new poll asks what you think the difference will be between the number of hot dogs eaten by Sonya Thomas in her Nathan’s qualifier and the amount eaten by Natsuko “Gal” Sone in the Tokyo qualifier. (This assumes the Gal enters the Tokyo qualifier.)

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Here are the top Nathan’s pound-for-pound performances in the finals since 2001 computed by dividing the amount eaten by the listed bodyweight of the competitor

1. 2002 Takeru Kobayashi 50.5 / 113 lb. = .447
2. 2004 Takeru Kobayashi 53.5 / 132 lb. = .405
3. 2001 Takeru Kobayashi 50 / 131 lb. = 382
4. 2005 Sonya Thomas 37 / 100 lb. = .370
5. 2005 Takeru Kobayashi 49 / 144 lb. = .340
6. 2004 Sonya Thomas 32 / 100 lb. = .320
7. 2001 Kazutoyo Arai 31 / 101 lb. = .30693
8. 2003 Takeru Kobayashi 44.5 / 145 lb. = .30690
9. 2005 Kenji Oguni 31 / 110 lb. = .282
10. 2003 Sonya Thomas 25 / 107 lb. = .234

CNN reports from 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 were used to compute these ratios

It is possible that Kobayashi’s 2002 weight is inaccurate since it is 18 pounds less than any other weight and the 2003 CNN article says that his current weight of 145 pounds is 15 pounds more than his 2002 weight. NY1 has an article from the weigh-in which reports that Kobayashi’s weight is 113 pounds.

If Kobayashi’s 2002 weight is correct, and Sonya retains her weight of 100 pounds, eating 45 hot dogs in the 2006 finals will produce the all-time best pound-for-pound result. (41 hot dogs will give Sonya that accolade if the 2002 weight is not accurate)

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Pictures from Saturday’s Phillips crabcake contest at the Baltimore Waterfront Festival can be viewed in this arstechnica.com forum thread. There are several pictures of “Eater X” and one commenter suggests that Tim ought to wear a costume.

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An excerpt from “Horsemen of the Esophagus” about Sonya Thomas’ record setting victory in the 2005 Acme oyster contest has been uploaded to jasonfagone.com.

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(Thanks Chip Simpson) Kevin Cowherd, the humor columnist for the Baltimore Sun, has a column about Sonya Thomas’ winning performance at the crabcake contest at the Baltimore Waterfront Festival on Saturday.

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Liz has posted Claudine Ko’s article about her participation in the Krystal Square Off finals and Sonya Thomas at http://www.urbanhonking.com/digest/archives/2006/04/sonya_thomas_in.html A photo album of the pictures in the article is also available.

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(Thanks Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough & Tube Sock Destroyer) The May issue of Jane Magazine (page 140) has an article (not available online) about Sonya Thomas which also includes an account of reporter Claudine Ko’s training for and participation in the Krystal Square Off finals (via a sponsor’s exemption). The article has a picture of “Sister X” wearing her brother’s trademark makeup.

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On her website, Sonya Thomas says that she expects Joey Chestnut to eat 40 or more hot dogs at the Nathan’s finals and guarantees that she will do likewise.

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The website for the Stockton, CA Asparagus Festival announces that the winner of the 2004 deep fried asparagus eating contest, Sonya Thomas, and the winner of the 2005 event, Joey Chestnut, will face off in the 2006 contest to be held on April 22. Sonya will stop off on the west coast en route from returning from her homeland of South Korea.

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“Dog” Davis, the last place finisher in the Queen Mary chili cheese fries contest, wrote an article for LA Weekly about his experience in that event.

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The three names above are consecutive entries in Wikipedia’s list of famous Korean Americans. Ward’s Korean background is described in this article from Yahoo sports. Golf phenom Michelle Wie’s stated goal is to beat all the men, but she has yet to back up her words with actions to the extent Sonya has.

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Thanks Bubba Yarbrough, Liz & Eater X

updated 2:43 pm, full results added

Liz has posted some pictures on her blog

Update 7:41 pm CBS has a short article on the contest.

Updated 2/2 8:05 am
J$ of velvet-sea.blogspot.com has a contest writeup with several pictures and a video of the pickle undercard between Brian Seiken and Kevin Lipsitz.

12:05 pm Al-Jazeera.net also has an article on the contest.

4:32 pm goldenpalace.com has an article, gallery and video of the contest

Humble Bob also has a gallery.

Congratulations to all competitors. Sonya has now won 4 of the last 5 contests, facing Joey Chestnut in all of them. Pat Bertoletti shows that his victory over Sonya and Joey was no fluke with a close third place. Good Luck to Joey, Rich and all the other Wing Bowl entrants Friday.

I am curious to hear how the sandwiches compared to the sandwiches in the qualifiers and how Charles Hardy’s rule limiting sandwich immersion to 5 seconds affected times.

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Philly.com reports that a documentary of Sonya Thomas at last year’s Wing Bowl filmed by Jenny Drumgoole will be screened at the Philadelphia University of the Arts Wednesday morning.

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The Las Vegas Review has a short writeup with three pictures of Saturday’s Big Daddy Burger contest. The Las Vegas Sun has a longer article with one picture.

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Thanks Bubba Yarbrough for the results

In a recent comment on her website, Sonya Thomas stated she intends to represent the 3 billion+ women on earth by injecting a more deadly venom into her male prey. Sonya definitely lived up to that claim today at the 9 pound Barrick / Big Daddy burger contest at the Plaza Casino in Las Vegas. Her time of approximately 27 minutes was almost half the 48 minutes she needed to finish last year’s contest (and is similar to her almost doubling her amount in last month’s meatball contest.) Las Vegas residents performed well at the contest, with Rich LeFevre and Ron Koch comprising half the top four.

Updated 10:02 KVVU has a video of an in studio contest yesterday between Rich LeFevre, Ron Koch, Hall Hunt and Joey Chestnut online

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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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After a hiatus of more than a week, Sonya Thomas’ web site has been restored with a new picture of her and Washington Redskin Renaldo Wynn (along with a very nice compliment for this site – Thanks Sonya.) Sonya apparently had an eating contest with the defensive lineman televised on local cable televesion. Sonya vs. the entire Redskins offensive or defensive line would probably be a more evenly matched competition.

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