Three...Two...One...

One of the great competitive events of our time occurred on July 4th.

Joey Chestnut defeated Takeru ‘Tsunami’ Kobayashi (is he related to the main character in ‘The Usual Suspects?) in an exciting, spirited, down to the wire contest. The lead wavered back and forth. The fans were on the edge of their seats. The contest had international television coverage and was featured on ESPN’s Sports Center (see below).

It was so disappointing to realize that one of the combatants had to lose after all the training, dedication and sacrifice.

You could say they left it all on the field. Well at least it appeared that one of them did.

During regulation Joey and Kobayashi each ate 59 hot dogs. It came down to a 5 hot dog eat off where Joey prevailed as he used the chipmunking technique. If my math is correct that’s over 12 pounds of hot dogs and rolls.

I heard Joey interviewed on the radio and he said his stomach wasn’t cooperating. Was that a surprise to him? If it was me, my stomach would have entered into the final stages of a launch sequence and been dangerously close to lift off.

Relive it again at ESPN.com.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3473708

Following is just a snippet of Joey’s Wikipedia entry. At that site you can also read about his eating history, training and world records (eighteen that I counted).

Joseph Christian "Jaws" Chestnut (born November 25, 1983) is an American competitive eater currently ranked first in the world by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. On July 4, 2007, he won the 92nd Annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, beating six-time defending champion Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi by consuming 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes, which set a new world record. On July 4, 2008, he successfully defended his title after winning a 5 hot dog eat-off after tying Kobayashi in consuming 59 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes.