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Chinese hot dog eaters to go to US contest

Updated: 2011-06-20 16:33

By Eric Jou and Wang Chao (chinadaily.com.cn)

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"We started three preliminaries over the past  four to five weeks in order to establish a quality group of competitors  for today's competition,  our hope is that going forward we'll do six preliminary events in stores in Beijing and Tianjin with another finals event next year," Marcus said. "We want to put together a successful china team and every year and make sure China over time if not this year becomes a dominant player in this sport (competitive eating)."

One of Marcus' prime contestants, Chris Lin, won the competition on Saturday by eating 16 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Lin, a Hong Kong native, said he prepped for the competition for two weeks says he's not a big eater but does it for the competition.

"When I was watching the contests on TV, I thought, ‘Hey, I can do it too!' I believe I can do it too so I started to sign up for competitions", Lin said. "Today I felt satisfied with my performances, maybe after practice; I can eat several more, maybe 20 at the most."

Lin's performance was the best, with the rest of the competition hitting around six to eight franks a piece.

Wang Ronglong, from North China's Hebei province, came in third; eating a total number of 12 hot dogs. Wang says that he's satisfied with his performance.

 "I feel OK with my performances today, but I'm sure I could eat more," Wang said. "I will think about it whether to go to New York for the world championships, since the company will offer me the free ticket to New York."

The competition and the preliminaries leading up to the Beijing finals were all sanctioned by Major League Eating (MLE). MLE Judge Mike Antolini, flew to Beijing with Chestnut to check out the Chinese eaters and build the sport in China.

"It all starts here today, and we'll certainly look at this event and think about it, we're definitely coming back," Antonlini said.

"Its just a matter of whether we're expanding or more qualifiers, with the July fourth contest it'll certainly be Nathans but, MLE holds competitions of sorts of disciplines so you never know when we'll be back in China. Comparing the numbers though, it appears that the Chinese contenders don't even come close to Chestnut. Sixteen hot dogs in 10 minutes is very far from 39 hot dogs in five minutes, but Chestnut believes there's room for improvement."

Chestnut said: "To be honest, there's not too much competitive eating in China. This is their first real contest and going back to my first contest and first time practicing hot dogs I did 16 and 20 in my first contest. They're not that far from where I first started."

 

 

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