67 Burgers

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Irregular News for 11.23.05

 

Chattanooga, TN -- Takeru Kobayashi swallowed 67 Krystal's hamburgers in eight minutes to retain his title of Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Champion and win $10,000.

 

Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, fended off San Diego State University engineering student Joey Chestnut, who was tied with the Japanese champion at 60 Krystals with 37 seconds left.

 

Chestnut, 21, said his failure to dunk one of the 2.5-square-inch burgers in water slowed him, and Kobayashi downed seven more Krystals as Chestnut only finished two in the remaining time.

 

"I tried to swallow without dunking it," Chestnut said. "I could have kept going. His experience carried him."

 

The 172-pound Kobayashi, who finished 69 Krystals during the 2004 contest, said this year's competition was a struggle. Kobayashi also holds the title of hot dog-eating champion, after eating 49 hot dogs in 12 minutes at the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest at Coney Island, New York.

 

"If I didn't have (Joey) Chestnut pushing me, I wouldn't have eaten so much this year," he said through a translator. "My arms weren't moving as fast as I wanted them to. I'm going to lose weight and come back to break my record next year."

 

The 16 contestants had eaten between 27 and 57 burgers in qualifying rounds to make it to Saturday's event, sanctioned by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Second prize was $5,000 and third was $2,500.

 

"I've never seen anything like it," said Kim Reece, academic coordinator with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic department. "Like finely tuned athletes, they have to train for this."

 

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