NEW YORK (AP) — The annual Nathan’s Well-known Fourth of July scorching canine consuming contest will see a slate of aggressive eaters wolf down as many franks as they’ll in New York Metropolis on Thursday — however this 12 months, the occasion’s largest star shall be chowing down 1,900 miles (3,000 km) away.
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, who gained 16 out of the earlier 17 contests, isn’t attending the competitors over a sponsorship tiff. As a substitute, he’ll compete in opposition to troopers at a U.S. Military base in El Paso later within the day.
That leaves the normal Brooklyn occasion huge open for a brand new winner, with eaters from all over the world competing on America’s Independence Day to see what number of scorching canines they’ll eat in 10 minutes.
Hundreds of followers flock every year to the occasion held outdoors the unique Nathan’s location in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, a beachfront vacation spot with amusement parks and a carnivalesque summer time tradition. ESPN will broadcast the competition stay, kicking off with the ladies’s division at 11 a.m. ET, whereas the boys’s will start at roughly 12:20 p.m.
Opponents are coming from over a dozen states and 5 continents, with prospects from Brazil, Japan, the UK, South Korea, Australia and the Czech Republic vying for the coveted title and $10,000 prize cash.
“There’s going to be a brand new champion,” Australian James Webb, who holds a world report for consuming 70 doughnuts in eight minutes, stated at a preview occasion in New York on Wednesday.
Final 12 months Chestnut, of Indiana, chewed his method to the title by downing 62 canines and buns in 10 minutes. The report, which he set in 2021, is 76.
Forward of the occasion, ESPN stated it could deal with two People with devoted digital camera pictures: Massachusetts highschool trainer Geoffrey Esper, within the males’s division, and Florida dental hygiene pupil Miki Sudo, within the girls’s.
Esper got here second final 12 months with 49 canines and buns, although his private greatest is 51. Sudo gained her ninth title in 2023 with 39 1/2, however her greatest is 48 1/2, the ladies’s world report.
“I’m going to be pushing myself,” Sudo stated Wednesday. Her rival Mayoi Ebihara, from Japan, stated by way of a translator that she would eat till she passes out, with a aim of downing 50 scorching canines.
Chestnut was initially disinvited from the occasion over a sponsorship take care of Unattainable Meals, an organization that makes a speciality of plant-based meat substitutes.
Main League Consuming, which organizes the Nathan’s Well-known contest, has since stated it walked again the ban, however Chestnut determined to spend the vacation with the troops anyway.
Chestnut stated he wouldn’t return to the Coney Island contest with out an apology.
The occasion on the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, scheduled to start at 5 p.m. ET, will use conventional franks, with Chestnut making an attempt to out-eat 4 troopers in 5 minutes.
Despite the fact that he gained’t be consuming their vegan merchandise, Unattainable Meals is selling Chestnut’s YouTube livestream of the exhibition by flying airplanes with banners over Los Angeles and Miami. The corporate will even donate to a corporation supporting navy households based mostly on the variety of scorching canines eaten on the occasion, a spokesperson stated.