American Joey Chestnut Wins World Hot Dog Eating Contest

Beats Out 6-time Winner, Japan's Kobayashi, with 66 Hot Dogs in 12 Mins

According to the Associated Press, American and Californian Joey Chestnut, 23, is now the official world's hot dog eating champion. On Wednesday July 4, 2007, Chestnut beat out six-time world hot dog eating champion 29-year-old Takeru Kobayashi of Japan in a long and stomach-aching match.

The match took place in Coney Island, NY at the Nathan's Famous annual hot dog eating contest. Chestnut broke his own world record by eating a whopping total of 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes. If you do the math, that is one hot dog every 10.9 seconds.

After winning and being named the new hot dog eating champion, Chestnut told the press, "If I needed to eat another one right now, I could." He received the mustard yellow belt emblematic of hot dog eating supremacy, reported Associated Press.

Kobayashi had a bit of a handicap though. The 29-year-old Japanese hot dog eating machine recently had a wisdom tooth pulled and received chiropractic treatment for a sore jaw. However, being the winner of the Nathan's Famous annual hot dog eating contest since 2001, he didn't let his recent medical problems get in the way of trying to beat out Chestnut.

However, Kobayashi was only able to inhale 63 hot dogs in 12 minutes compared to Chestnut's 66 hot dogs.

Still, with 63 hot dogs in 12 minutes, it was his best eating performance yet. His last record was 53.5 dogs. Before Wednesday, Chestnut set a new record of 59.5 hot dogs just last month in another 12-minute contest, reported the Associated Press.

Within the first few minutes, both Kobayashi and Chestnut consumed more franks than any of the other competitors in the competition. Each had already put down 60 hot dogs with only a minute left on the clock.

In those last few seconds, Chestnut put Kobayashi away for good and became the new hot dog eating champ, said the Associated Press.

Sources:
The Associated Press. "American wins hot-dog eating contest." Yahoo News! news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070704/ap_on_fe_st/weiner_wars;_ylt=AlpQmFIl0jjRB4JEt1BMd3DMWM0F