Man eats 67 Krystals to repeat as hamburger eating champion

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. — 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.

The Nagano, Japan, man fended off San Diego State University engineering student Joey Chestnut, who was tied with Kobayashi 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, N.Y.

“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.”

———

On the Net:

International Federation of Competitive Eating, http://www.ifoce.com/