joey chestnut wins his 3rd straight nathan's hot dog eating contest!!

yesterday joey chestnut defended his championship title by winning his 3rd straight nathan's hot dog eating contest!! last year it took a sudden death eat-off victory to defend his title when he and takeru kobayashi finished tied in regulation time.

the 2009 edition of this 4th of july coney island classic was marginally less suspenseful - there was no tie finish. but chestnut capped his victory by setting a new a world record with the 68 hot dogs he consumed in 13 minutes! kobayashi again finished second (64 hot dogs). the women's champion, sonya thomas, ate 41 hot dogs - and she too set a new women's record in the process!

i watched hour long live coverage on espn at noon - which, in turn, had followed a busy early morning at the putnam county classic in mahopac and a late morning at our own davis park 4th of july festivities. unfortunately, after all that excitement, the last thing i wanted to do was eat a hot dog - haha.