The goal: eat as many hotdogs as possible in a 10 minute span.
The dogs come plain on a bun (sorry, no mustard or coleslaw allowed.) The contestants: some of the biggest eaters from around the world who were winners of any from among 23 world-wide qualifying events during the previous year, and many of them remarkably small-framed folks.
The two favorites were the Japanese wunderkind 'Kobayashi', a six-time champion, and last year's winner and sentimental favorite, Vallejo California's own Joey Chestnut (shown in pic after winning the '07 event).
Kobayashi started out slow as Chestnut bolted out to a lead in the early going. Kobayashi began to make his move around the halfway point and pulled slowly ahead, maintaining about a one-dog lead down the stretch. In the final seconds, Chestnut gobbled his way into a tie, and as the buzzer sounded it was Kobayashi and Chestnut well ahead of the field in a dead heat.
