The Buffalo News has a preview of the Chicken Wing Festival to be held at Buffalo’s minor league stadium Labor Day weekend. There will be a wing eating contest Saturday of that weekend in which Sonya Thomas will attempt to break her record of 161 wings in twelve minutes. There will also be a buffet contest on Sunday, but since it just pays out $500 to the winner, Sonya and the other top eaters might opt for the waffle contest in Atlanta, which will pay out $5,000 to the victor.

If Sonya enters two contests Labor Day weekend, she will appear in twelve contests between the 4th of July and Labor Day if each round of the US Open is counted as a separate contest. This is a considerable increase from her planned goal of 12 to 18 contests a year which is found in her website’s FAQ.

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The Delaware State News has a preview of Sunday’s crabcake contest at the Delaware Slots online with some quotes from Sonya Thomas. Sonya states she lived in Georgetown, Delaware in 1996 and managed a Burger King there so the contest will be something of a homecoming to her.

Joey Chestnut states he will travel across the country to compete, setting up the possibility of a repeat of the dramatic finish at the bratwurst contest in Wisconsin. The URL for Joey’s upcoming website will be futureofeating.com. We will see on Sunday if the future starts August 21.

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Sonya Thomas appeared on ‘The Situation with Tucker Carlson’ on August 11. She ate at least four bratwurst on the show. She claims that she can’t really taste the food she eats in competitions, but says the bratwurst she ate (at contest speed) during the broadcast were delicious. She announces her expectation of surpassing Kobayashi near the end of her appearance.

MSNBC has a transcript of that appearance at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8925269/ Sonya does not show up until the end .

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from http://www.sonyatheblackwidow.com/:

Lobster-Eating Championship (12 minutes), 13 Aug 05, Kennebunkport, Maine.

1. Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, 44 Lobsters (11.4 lbs) (New World Record!)
2. “Crazy Legs” Conti: 32 Lobsters
3. Eric “Badlands” Booker: 25 Lobsters

Unlike last week, Sonya’s victory was never in doubt. Despite not being challenged, she easily breaks the record she set last year of 9.76 pounds (38 lobsters), an (11.4 – 9.76) / 9.76 = 17% increase from last year.

The crabcake contest to be held at the Midway Slots at the Delaware State Fairgrounds in Harrington August 21 will probably be Sonya’s next contest (There are several IFOCE contests next weekend). This will give her the chance to set shellfish eating records in consecutive weeks . The contest will be the closest event to Sonya’s hometown of Alexandria, VA that she has competed in quite a while. Brian Subich’s website says that Joey Chestnut will probably travel across the country to appear in this contest, setting up the possibility of a repeat of the dramatic finish at the bratwurst contest last week.

Updated 8:59pm The AP has put out an article on the lobster contest (from boston.com) It gets the date of the grilled cheese contest wrong like the AP article on the bratwurst contest.

Updated Aug 15 1:03am
Portland Press article
New Zealand Herald article

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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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Sonya Thomas won the San Diego grilled cheese contest August 3. Her total of 21.5 sandwiches was a considerable dropoff from the 25 she ate in February. Rich Lefevre was second with 20 and Carlene LeFevre took third place with 15. Over the past month, Rich Lefevre has participated in eating contests in every region of the country except for the gulf coast.

There are 14 remaining grilled cheese sandwich contests in the Golden Palace circuit, the next one taking place at the famous motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD on August 10.

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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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signonsandiego.com has an article promoting Sonya Thomas’ appearance in a grilled cheese sandwich contest at the minor league Surf Dawgs game Wednesday. There is not really any new information in the article. Sonya will attempt to break her record of 25 sandwiches in 10 minutes which she set in Venice Beach in February. There will be 15 (!) grilled cheese sandwich contests in the circuit, the next one located in South Dakota next week. If there are no limits on the number of contests an eater can enter, Sonya could really rack up some frequent flyer miles going to grilled cheese sandwich contests. All time leading run-scorer and base stealer Rickey Henderson plays for the Surf Dawgs, so if there was a Hall of Fame for competitive eating there would be two future Hall of Famers at the Surf Dawgs stadium Wednesday.

Pictures of Sonya and Carlene LeFevre at the last grilled cheese contest can be found at:
http://www.virginmarygrilledcheese.com/welcome.php?pf=%2Fstory_eating_contest.php

ESPN.com takes note of the US Open two days after it is televised in this column which solely consists of praise for Kobayashi.

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In FAQ #29 on her home page, Sonya claims that the Wing Bowl was an event she “thoroughly enjoys” participating in and that the fun she has at a contest is proportional to the crowd size. This would be understandable if every member in a large crowd was on tolerable behavior but at the 2005 Wing Bowl they most certainly were not:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/050205
http://www.mrfootball.com/forums/showthread.php?s=45493eaf14c63f8167536cf01cead604&t=111080&page=1&pp=15

It is possible she was focused enough to tune out verbal insults from the crowd, but it seems that thrown objects would be impossible to ignore.

It would be interesting to see how the Wing Bowl crowd would treat South Jersey girl Kate Stelnick if she ever participates in it.

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3rd round Italian salad 7 minutes
Sonya Thomas over Ron Koch, Tim Janus over Rich LeFevre, Cookie Jarvis over Badlands Booker, Kobayashi over Sam Vise. Rich LeFevre did not enjoy much hometown advantage, getting upset by Tim Janus who rebounded from a moderately disappointing performance at Nathan’s.

Sonya finished her second 2 pound salad as time expired, beating Ron Koch handily. Kobayashi essentially quit as he had built up a big enough lead. I am not sure if he quit before finishing his second salad, if he did then Sonya can claim a world record for Italian salad as she appeared to be the only competitor who finished two salads.

Sonya’s feature was essentially a repeat of the profile from Nathan’s in which she wore a witch outfit.

Semi Finals Potato skins
Sonya defeated Tim Janus rather easily, 53 skins to 44 while Kobayashi destroyed Cookie Jarvis with 72 skins. When asked what Janus needs to do to move into the elite, Sonya said he needed to expand his stomach capacity. Given Sonya’s increasing capacity, Janus is up against a moving target.

Potato skins should probably be judged by weight and not number as potato size is quite variable.

Finals 6 pound tailgate platter 15 minutes
Sonya was beaten pretty easily by Kobayashi, who came close to finishing two platters. She was really struggling at the end. The platter was difficult to eat due to the diversity of food items on it. Sonya tried to sort of make a stew out of the items, but it did not make that much difference. It was hard to follow the contest as it jumped from the start to the end and it did not give when the first platters were finished. I think the tailgate platter was the only contest item which contained meat.

A parody of the Michelob Ultra commercials, in which a man and woman compete in something like roller blading and then get hydrated by drinking a low carb beer could be made in which Kobayashi and Sonya chow down and then relax after the competition drinking a Michelob Ultra to reduce the amount of calories they consume. (I wonder how Sonya’s metabolism affects how her body processes alcohol.)

The next chance for Sonya to face Kobayashi will probably come at the Crystal burger championship if Kobayashi chooses to defend his win there.

A good showing for Sonya, defeating four talented competitors in a wide array of food items despite disappointment at the end. If she could practice on a ESPNZone tailgate platter, she might have been able to devise more effective techniques. While the 2005 US Open of Competitive Eating and Nathan’s hot dog contest have shown that the current distance between Kobayashi and Sonya is considerable, they also made it apparent that there is an undeniable gap between Sonya Thomas and whoever might be competing for third.

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Bigbrian.org now has the second round results up. Sonya Thomas advances to the second round eating a US record 11 pounds of spaghetti in 14 minutes, defeating Oleg Zhornitskiy. (I feel full after eating a half pound of spaghetti.) Carlene LeFevre was defeated by Ron Koch.

Kobayashi ate 13.5 pounds of spaghetti, setting a world record. I think that this (11/13.5 = 81.5%) is the best result percentagewise for Sonya vs. Kobabyashi and continues her trend of improvement (2005 Nathan’s 37/49 = 75.5%, 2004 Krystal 46/69 = 67.7%, 2004 Nathan’s 32/53.5 = 59.8%).

(update July 30 12:21 AM) beautifulbrian.com has 2nd round results up with some pictures (but none of Sonya) (he claims Sonya consumed 10 pounds of pasta).

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Photo album from May 26 SF Chronicle about Sonya Thomas
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2005/05/26/eat.DTL&o=4

Remaining pictures are by firmrep357

Pictures from before 2005 Wing Bowl
http://community.webshots.com/album/266831340hhDvEn/1
http://community.webshots.com/album/266831340hhDvEn/2

Pictures from 2004 Nathan’s Contest (has some pictures of Carlene LeFevre)
pictures show the size difference between Sonya and Badlands Booker
http://community.webshots.com/album/161294535eoWBBP
http://community.webshots.com/album/161294535eoWBBP/1
http://community.webshots.com/album/161294535eoWBBP/2

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The number of records claimed by Sonya Thomas decreased to 25 to 24 on July 9 when Rich LeFevre bested her 2004 total of 6 (huge) slices by 1.5 slices. Sonya did not participate in this contest sponsored by the Bacci pizzeria in Chicago.

It appears from the picture that Carlene LeFevre competed with her husband. If she entered, she failed to crack the top four in a field consisting solely of unranked Chicago residents except for her spouse. This would represent a considerable dropoff from her Nathan’s result from five days earlier when she placed 7th against the best eaters in the world. I wonder if she was taking it easy in preparation for the U.S. Open in her hometown the next week.

(Note: This article says all the entrants were male, but also that Rich ate 8 slices and the length was 16 minutes so I am not sure how accurate it is added 7/25 1:51 AM)

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In the 2005 Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest, Sonya Thomas had a greater ratio of hot dogs eaten to body weight than Kobayashi did:

37 hot dogs / 105 lb. = .352 > 49 hot dogs / 144 lb. = .340

Sonya’s ratio is still less than the all-time best set by Kobayashi last year:

53.5 hot dogs / 144 lb. = .372 > .352

However, if a 99 lb. weight for Sonya is used (some articles use this figure), that appears to put her just ahead of Kobayashi’s all time best:

37 hot dogs / 99 lb. = .374 > .372

It is necessary to use Kobayashi’s 2004 weight of 132 lb. in computing his ratio for that year. (He gained a considerable amount of muscle in 2005 which he believes hurt him). That gives him a comfortable lead over Sonya’s best possible ratio:

53.5 hot dogs / 132 lb. = .405 > .374

Hopefully after several more years of improvement Sonya will be able to surpass her Japanese rival in absolute terms and make the “pound-for-pound” qualifier irrelevant.

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Photobucket.com has some good pictures of Sonya taken by (and with) Marv after the 2005 Nathan’s hot dog contest. You could never tell from her expression or her mid-section that she had just consumed 37 hot dogs. Despite the looseness of her T-shirt, you would still assume that some stomach swelling would be visible. Her torso must contain an internal trash compactor if not a black hole.

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