Commenters noticed that the IFOCE top 50 was changed yesterday. The top 20 appears unchanged. Stephanie Torres (#21) and Michelle “Cardboard Shell” Lesco (#26) are the new entrants. Kevin Ross (formerly #26) and Shawn Kirby (formerly #50) were dropped. Damon Wells jumped from #28 to #22. Five women in the top 50 sets a new record for female representation.

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1) Sonya Thomas 40, 1 off record, 9-peats as best woman at Nathan’s
2) Juliet Lee 29.5
3) Stephanie Torres 28.5, 3rd woman to exceed 25, finals record for rookie female
4) Michelle “Cardboard Shell” 20
5) Larell Marie Mele 16
6) Maria “The Incredible Sulk” 15
7) Laura Leu 8.5
8) Grace Lee 4, probably greatest % decrease between qualifier & finals since Jed Donahue’s 1 HDB
9) Laura Gallagher 3

16:42 If Sonya Thomas competed in the men’s division, she would have came in fourth and won $1,500, $1,000 less than the same as the original women’s 1st place prize of $2,500.

16:07 Grace Lee claims she ate 24 hot dogs. Official results have her at 4.

13:43 CNN has raw video from the contest.

12:40 According to The El Paso Times, the official results have Juliet Lee & Stephanie Torres in a tie for 2nd place w/29.

12:10 ESPN showed Juliet Lee and Stephanie Torres in a tie for 2nd place w/ 29.

11:51 EatingContest has full results:

11:41 The contest is over. Sonya has won with a total of 40 hot dogs, one off her record.

11:39 Stephanie & Juliet are tied w/2 minutes left.

11:36 Halfway through the contest Sonya is up by 6 followed by Juliet, Stephanie and Michelle.

11:33 The CNN stream has apparently stopped to avoid conflicting with the ESPN3 webcast.

11:32 The women’s contest has started

11:21 Introductions have started before the 11:25 official ESPN 3 broadcast time. Laura Leu has been introduced.

The contest (without audio) can be viewed on CNN.com

The BBC has an audio interview with Sonya Thomas

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update Apr 28 Naader Reda has a video (via Stephanie Wu)

update Apr 26 #2 Naader Reda and Robin Leach have blog entries.

update Apr 26 Don Sturdy has a gallery

update Apr 25 Gaming Today has an article which claims that Adrian Morgan qualified for the finals.

6:47 Naader Reda has the top 3
1 Sean Gordon 30 hdbs
2 Adrian Morgan 27
3 Stephanie Torres 23 4th woman to break 20 hot dogs, best female debut of 10 minute qualifier era

6:44 It appears Rich LeFevre is competing according to this picture

6:38 The contest has started

6:27 Introductions have started

Some thoughts before the qualifier:

• Sonya Thomas Nathan’s debut was 18 hot dogs in 12 minutes with no previous eating contests. Juliet Lee ate 28 in 12 minutes after competing in the IFOCE for almost a year.
• Unresolved questions about the women’s division: Will Sonya Thomas receive a bye since she is the women’s record holder | Will there be a women’s wild card? (if two women exceed 10 hot dogs at one qualifier)
• The differential between the men’s and women’s Nathan’s prizes has been receiving some critical media attention: Time | Eater.com | Jezebel

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Don Sturdy mentions the possibility of Stephanie Torres opting out of the women’s division of the Nathan’s finals for the more lucrative men’s division. (It is not clear if the rules allow this.) Here are the average amounts eaten and corresponding prizes for the top 8 places in the past three years when the contest duration has been ten minutes.

If the women’s purse of $5000 is distributed in the same manner as the men’s purse, the following prizes will be awarded: $2500/$1250/$625/$375/$250.

The absences of Takeru Kobayashi and Sonya Thomas from this year’s men’s contest could lower the average amount eaten for some of the places, but it is probable that all male moneywinners will eat at least 33 hot dogs which is the average amount for seventh place in the previous three years.

If a rookie woman eats 31-36, that would be between the average amount of Sonya Thomas, 37 (34, 41, 36) and Juliet Lee 30 (29, 34, 27), which would be good for second place and a prize of $1250, which exceeds the men’s fifth place prize of $1000.

For the top woman to earn more money in the men’s contest she would have to come in at least second place, since the women’s first prize of $2,500 equals the men’s third place prize. The average top male performance excluding Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi over the past three years has been 47.33 (42 55 45), which exceeds Sonya Thomas’ personal best of 41 hot dogs by six.

A list of all the top 8 amounts for the past 3 years is available after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

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In a December episode of Outrageous Food Stephanie Torres faced off against four men in an Extreme Grizzly (7 pound) burrito eating contest at Marianito’s in San Antonio. A clip of her segment has been uploaded:

StephVsGrizzly.avi (6MB 2 min)

In last night’s episode, Jessica “Queen of Cuisine” was part of a group of women that attempted to eat a single Dog Pounder burger at Lumpy’s Diner in Antioch, CA (She has finished the burger without help) The results of the team challenge was not televised. Stephanie Wu’s name could also be read on the plaque listing the finishers of the “Initimidator” omelet.

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