COMPETITION
Frankly, hot dog eater is pleased with 12th place finish
Although “Buffalo Jim Reeves” placed well behind the record-setting hot dog gobbling of three-time winner Joey Chestnut in Nathan’s Famous July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest, the big man from Boston, N. Y., was satisfied Saturday afternoon.
“I did pretty well for me,” said Reeves by phone after downing 28.5 hot dogs and buns — HDBs, in competitive eating parlance — to earn 12th place in the timed, 10-minute contest. “It was a personal best for me. I know there were some people above and some people below, so I think I finished in the middle of the pack.”
Chestnut, 25, of San Jose, Calif., not only defended his title, he set an all-time record by eating 68 hot dogs. His closest rival, Takeru Kobayashi of Japan, who has won the “Mustard Yellow Belt” six times, ate 64.5.
Last year, Chestnut and Kobayashi each finished with 59, forcing a five-HDB speed-eating contest to break the tie.
Unofficial reports from Reeves’ cheering section put Patrick Bertoletti third with 55 HDBs and Tim “Eater X” Janus fourth with 53. The International Federation of Competitive Eating, the governing body of eating contests, was still crunching numbers Saturday afternoon.
Fan favorite Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas — winner of the wing-eating contest at Buffalo’s National Buffalo Wing Festival in 2007 and 2008 — and Erik “the Red” Denmark reportedly finished fifth and sixth.
A few hours after he stepped away from the HDB platters, Reeves was still thinking about his performance.
“I was doing great,” he said. “I got the first 20 down in about 5 minutes. But then my mouth got full, my jaw got tired of chewing, my throat got tired of swallowing.”
After Reeves, a Gowanda high school teacher, and his wife, Terri, took their daughters, — Emily, 12, Cloe, 6, and Olivia, 4 — to the beach, the family took a train back to the house where they are staying with Terri’s relatives. Next on the agenda was getting cleaned up and maybe a nap. Then the family would probably have dinner, Reeves said.
“Not for me, though,” he said, laughing. “I’m sure I’m good ’til tomorrow.”
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