Sunday, July 03, 2005

Can you still use "The Tsunami" as a nickname?



The Tsunami’s drive for five



"He's just amazing," said Richard Shea, president of the International Federation of Competitive Eating. "This is like winning four Super Bowls in a row."

Kobayashi will go for his fifth straight win in Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest at New York's Coney Island. If you go by the tale of the tape, some of his competitors should be eating Kobayashi.

He is literally one-third their size, which makes as much sense as a $5 box of movie popcorn. Like many of the world's top athletes, Kobayashi maintains an air of mystery.

He's from Nagano, Japan. He's 27 years old. He doesn't speak English.
He doesn't compete often. But when he does, don't get too close.

Kobayashi ate 53 1/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes to win last year's contest. The previous record was . . . Hold everything!

Koba-what?

We're talking about eating contests as sport? What next, competitive belching?


See all the action, and the over-the-top announcers, at 11 am, Monday on ESPN.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How is it possible to east that many hot dogs? How is it a sport, you sit there and eat...

Anonymous said...

Well Miles, I don't know if it is a sport or not. I'm sure some claim it is. I do know that it takes talent, a natural ability and believe it or not, training to do it. Personally, I love watching every year to see "The Tsunami" lay waste to the competition. I mean c'mon they guy is taking down fifty-effing-three hot dogs!! I might be able to eat five.

Anonymous said...

Good point, that would be really hard to eat that many and train for the competition...

Anonymous said...

So long Coach Stram. Long live the 65 Toss Power Trap...

Anonymous said...

It looks like the Americans are closing in on Kobayashi....Although he got 49, Sonya Thomas (105 lbs), aka "The Black Widow" on the competitive-eating circuit, set an American record with 37 in 12 minutes.