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U.S. NEWS Friday 5 July 2019

We have a wiener! Joey Chestnut eats 71 hot dogs for title

By ALI SWENSON women’s record of 45 hot
Associated Press dogs in 10 minutes.
NEW YORK (AP) — Joey Chestnut and Sudo will
“Jaws” Chestnut ate 71 each take home $10,000.
wieners and buns to secure Spectators with foam hot
his 12th title at Nathan’s dog hats, plastic noisemak-
Famous annual July Fourth ers and homemade signs
hot dog eating contest on descended on Coney Is-
Thursday, just a few hot land’s famed boardwalk
dogs shy of breaking the for the contest.
record he set last year. The annual eat-off started
In front of a crowd of fans in 1972, though the com-
and facing 17 opponents, pany has long promoted
the California native far ex- the event with a theatrical
ceeded his nearest com- backstory that places its
petitors, but didn’t quite start date in 1916.
make or pass the 74-dog Chestnut has only lost once
mark he reached in 2018. since 2007, when he pulled
When asked how he felt af- ahead of longtime foe Tak-
ter the contest, Chestnut, eru Kobayashi for the first
35, said, “I feel like I should time. An ESPN documen-
eat a couple more. tary released Tuesday fea-
“I knew it was going to be tures the two former rivals
close. I was trying hard and Joey Chestnut reacts after winning the men’s competition of Nathan’s Famous July Fourth hot dog and their extreme training
I was overstuffing my mouth eating contest, Thursday, July 4, 2019, in New York’s Coney Island. regimens. “It’s not some-
and it wasn’t going down,” Associated Press thing that there’s books
he said. “I just needed to The 33-year-old fell short Like Chestnut, she ex- heat, but I really can’t com- written about,” Chest-
find a way to move a little of her total last year of 37 pressed some disappoint- plain. I wasn’t feeling in my nut says in the film, which
bit faster. I think it’s getting frankfurters but earned her ment in not eating more. best shape so I’m just glad shows him lifting his head
harder the older I get.” sixth consecutive title by “It wasn’t my best number, that it was enough to pull up and down with a weight
Miki Sudo won the women’s easily beating runner-up the numbers were pretty off a sixth belt,” she said. dangling from his mouth.
competition by chomping Michelle Lesco, who wolfed low across the board. I Sonya “The Black Widow” “There’s not trainers. Every-
down 31 hot dogs. down 26 hot dogs. don’t know if it was the Thomas holds the all-time thing’s trial and error.”q