The 2008 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest results are in and for the second year in a row - California's Joey Chestnut wins it.
Actually it was a tie between Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi at 59 hot dogs each, leading to a sudden death show down. Anyone who had the Over 56 1/2 hot dogs at Bookmaker.com won their bet. Likewise, Chestnut and Kobayashi were both favorites and the bet on Chestnut was the winner.
Legend has it that the hot dog contest has been held annually at Nathan's Famous on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island since 1916, according to Fox 5 New York.
The contest traditionally lasts 12 minutes and includes up to 20 big eaters. This year's event was cut down to 10 minutes. It was unclear whether Bookmaker.com had factored these reports into its current line as last year's winner, Joey Chestnut, gulped down 66 franks.
Prior to Chestnut's record - Japan's Takeru Kobayashi had been the crowning champ for five years straight.
The 24-year old Chestnut - who likely has a long hot dog eating contest career ahead of him - will be arriving in New York from his home town of San Jose, California.
Chestnut trains by fasting and by stretching his stomach with milk and water. Three days before winning a chicken-eating contest in Boston, in November 2005, Chestnut drank gallons of water in under one minute and ate buffalo wings to get his stomach accustomed to them. As of July 4, 2006, his competition weight was 220 pounds (100 kg).
The San José State University student entered the competitive eating scene in 2005 with a break-out performance in the deep-fried asparagus eating championship, in which he beat high-ranked eater Rich LeFevre by eating 6.3 pounds of asparagus in 11.5 minutes.
