Chestnut bested 14 fellow rivals from throughout the U.S. and internationally, together with Australia, the Czech Republic, Ontario, England and Brazil.
NEW YORK — Famed aggressive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut reclaimed his title Friday on the Nathan’s Well-known Fourth of July sizzling canine consuming contest after skipping final 12 months’s gastronomic battle in New York for the coveted Mustard Belt.
Chestnut, 41, consumed 70 1/2 sizzling canines and buns in 10 minutes, falling wanting his 2021 report of 76 wieners and buns. It marked the seventeenth win in 20 appearances for the Westfield, Indiana, eater on the internationally televised competitors, which he missed final 12 months over a contract dispute.
“I want I ate a pair extra. Sorry guys,” a smiling Chestnut instructed the group, many chanting his identify. “I’ll be again subsequent 12 months.”
Defending champion within the girls’s division, Miki Sudo of Tampa, Florida, received her eleventh title, downing 33 canines, besting a dozen rivals. Final 12 months, she ate a report 51 hyperlinks. She additionally was apologetic for her efficiency.
“I really feel like I let the followers down slightly bit. I heard folks within the crowd saying, ‘Go for 52,’” Sudo instructed ESPN. “Clearly, I’m all the time setting my objectives excessive, however the sizzling canines weren’t cooperating. For some cause, the buns felt bigger in the present day.”
A big crowd, peppered with foam sizzling canine hats, turned out to witness the annual eat-a-thon, held exterior the unique Nathan’s Well-known restaurant in Coney Island, Brooklyn, since 1972. Many followers confirmed as much as see Chestnut’s much-awaited return to an occasion he has known as “a cherished custom, a celebration of American tradition, and an enormous a part of my life.”
Chestnut bested 14 fellow rivals from throughout the U.S. and the world, together with Australia, the Czech Republic, Ontario, England and Brazil. Final 12 months’s winner, Patrick Bertoletti of Chicago, got here in second place after gobbling up 46 1/2 sizzling canines and buns, falling wanting the 58 he ate to earn the 2024 males’s title.
“I like being right here,” Chestnut instructed ESPN after his win. “As quickly as I came upon I used to be coming, my physique — it was straightforward to coach. I like doing it. And love pushing myself and beating the heck out of individuals.”
Final 12 months, Main League Consuming occasion organizer George Shea mentioned Chestnut wouldn’t be collaborating within the contest as a result of a contract dispute. Chestnut had struck a cope with a competing model, the plant-based meat firm Unimaginable Meals.
Chestnut instructed The Related Press final month that he had by no means appeared in any commercials for the corporate’s vegan sizzling canines and that Nathan’s is the one sizzling canine firm he has labored with. However Chestnut acknowledged he “ought to have made that extra clear with Nathan’s.”
Final 12 months, Chestnut ate 57 canines — in solely 5 minutes — in an exhibition with troopers, at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. He mentioned that occasion was “wonderful” and that he was happy to nonetheless have an opportunity to eat sizzling canines — a variety of them — on July Fourth.
“I’m completely satisfied I did that, however I’m actually completely satisfied to be again at Coney Island,” he mentioned.
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