Hot Dog Eating Contest: Joey Chestnut takes the title home

Joey Chestnut won the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest today, bringing home the title after years of Japanese domination.

Hot Dog Eating Contest: Joey Chestnut takes the title home In what has to be the undisputed all-American sport, a hot dog eating contest, Joey Chestnut put down 66 hotdogs to take the champion title back to the United States.

For many years, the Japanese Takeru Kobayashi ate more hot-dogs than anyone else, taking the pride to Japan, in the "Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest" in the Coney Island, New York. But Chestnut came out strong and broke all records with 66 hot-dogs in 12 minutes, followed by Kobayashi with 63. Earlier this week the title was almost given away to Joey Chestnut, after a jaw injury made Kobayashi to consider pulling out of the contest.

Disappointed, all reputable sportsbooks closed the betting props on the hot dog eating contest, when the jaw injury was made public, some of them re-posting odds a couple of days before the competition. The online betting website Bodog Sports had Joey Chestnut favorite with odds 2/5, and Takeru Kobayashi was downgraded to 3/2 after the incident.

Joey Chestnut, who is a student from California, finally stuffed down enough hot dogs to beat Takeru Kobayashi, who has held the title in the Nathan's Famous July4th Hot Dog Eating Contest six years in a row.

Published on 07/04/2007