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NEW YORK -- Joey Chestnut retained the top spot as winner of the annual hot dog eating contest in Coney Island, first tying archrival Takeru Kobayashi in a 10-minute chow-down and then beating him in a five-dog eat-off.
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The gastrointestinal distress is gonna get worse, fellas, because you're tied at 59 and this is going to an eat-off. (Getty Images) |
The men tied at 59 frankfurters in 10 minutes, before being made to gobble another five dogs in a last-minute tiebreaker. They consumed 64 hot dogs total and were looking quite peaked after the competition.
Kobayashi had hoped to reclaim the throne after a disappointing three-dog loss last year shattered his six-year winning streak.
"He wanted it, but I needed it," Chestnut said.
Thousands gathered at Coney Island on the Fourth of July to watch the glutinous gladiators compete in the annual event. Chestnut emerged victorious for the second year in a row, beating 20 others who had only 10 minutes to scarf down as many hot dogs as possible, two minutes less than in previous years.
The regulation time was changed after it was revealed that the original competition in 1916 was just 10 minutes long, instead of the 12-minute limit used in more recent years. The switch made for a tense competition.
Chestnut quickly pulled ahead, with cheeks puffed as he crammed hot dogs into his mouth. At one point, the 24-year-old Californian led Kobayashi 14 to 11. Kobayashi fell to third place, but ate his way back and the two went dog-to-dog in the final stretch. After a frankfurter photo-finish, the judges decided it was a tie.
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Richard Shea, one of the founders of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, said it was the first time in his memory the contest went into overtime.
As usual, Kobayashi's strategy was to eat all the dogs first, then dunk the buns and eat them. A pause while swallowing the soggy buns meant defeat.
"He should've won it, it was his to win," said judge Gersh Kuntzman said of the diminutive 30-year-old of Nagano, Japan.
The 128-pound legend in the competitive eating circuit told Brooklyn papers that he wasn't feeling 100 percent, and while he was improving, the tooth problem and sore jaw that hampered last year's performance were still something of a problem.
"If I put one more mouthful in, I could've won (in regulation)," Kobayashi said through a translator.
Their competitors also included a pizza cook from New York City, a fishmonger from Chicago and a 110-pound mother of two from Maryland.
