Source : Perth Now news
Competitive eater Joey ‘Jaws’ Chestnut has retained his world record for scoffing the most hot dogs in 10 minutes after managing to consume 66 of them at Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July contest on Saturday (04Jul26).
The 42-year-old took home the ‘Mustard Belt’ honour for the 17th year, beating 13 competitors, from countries including Australia, South Korea and the Czech Republic as he did so.
Following his victory, Joey called competitive hot dog eating “the most patriotic sport we’ve got” – as it’s held annually on the Independence Day holiday.
In an interview after his win, Joey said: “It’s a dream, it’s electric, there’s no place better on Earth”.
Coming in second place was 41-year-old Patrick Bertoletti, who managed to eat 50 hot dogs and buns.
However, Joey fell short of topping his own world record, which saw him eat 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes at the contest in 2021 – a whopping 7.6 hot dogs per minute.
Joey added after the competition that he was disappointed he hadn’t beaten the record – one of 55 world records he has – as he had “so much room left”.
It’s understood that the heatwave in New York, which saw temperatures rise to 32 degrees Celsius, made the contest harder, while the weather also changed the consistency of the buns, ESPN presenters said.
In the women’s division of the contest, Miki Sudo defended her title after eating 38.75 hot dogs – short of her 2024 record of 51 of them.
Speaking after her win, Miki said: “I just said I would have to rely on muscle memory, and the crowd really carried me through to another belt today.”
Unfortunately her husband, who proposed to her in 2021 after achieving the world record for eating 50 boiled eggs in three minutes, was beaten to the men’s title by Joey.
Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July contest dates back to 1972, and is held in front of the Nathan’s Famous restaurant on Coney Island in New York.
