Saturday, June 02, 2007

Will the Mustard Belt Be Back in American Hands Soon?

In today's Southwest regional qualifiers for the 2007 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, the Bay Area's very own Joey Chestnut shattered the world record by eating 59 1/2 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. The previous world record of 53 3/4 dogs was held by Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, who set the mark during the 2006 event, held annually on the 4th of July on New York's Coney Island.

With his amazing performance, Chestnut is probably the odds-on favorite to take the title this year. He may be the best chance that the United States has had in years to bring the Mustard Belt back to American turf. The title has been claimed by Japanese contestants the past seven years, with Kobayashi winning the past six contests. Not since Steve Keiner won the event in 1999 with a measly 20 1/2 hot dogs has an American held the title for the crowning event of the International Federation of Competitive Eating.

Go Joey, go! Eat Joey, eat!

1 comment:

tesha said...

The idea of someone shoving all those hot dogs and buns into their mouths is obscenely funny. Shall we try a Bay Area hot dog contest? Winner takes the Fog Belt as their prize!