Kobayashi wins Wing Bowl 20, shatters record

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Earlier in the week, Takeru Kobayashi did a mini-media tour in advance of Wing Bowl 20. He chatted with various newspaper reporters and went to dinner with bloggers. He also stopped by the WIP studios on Monday to hype his appearance in the eventor, rather, have it hyped on his behalf.

Platitudes were spewed at Kobayashi like so many undigested chicken wings booted up by unprepared contestants who pushed themselves too far, too fast. They called him champ and the legend and the greatest of all timeand that was before Kobayashi (known as Kobi to friends and fans of the worlds most famous competitive eater) was inside the studio with Angelo Cataldi and WIPs morning team.

My dream from the beginning, Cataldi told Kobayashi, was to have the Wing Bowl end with the worlds greatest eater winning it all as confetti showers down on everyone. Thats you. Youre the Babe Ruth of eaters.

Outside the studio, when the interview was over, Tony Luke ramped up the rhetoric even further. They have become an unlikely pair, Kobayashi and Lukeone a competitive eater from Japan, the other a social eater and cheesesteak pusher from South Philly. Luke, who has lost more than 100 pounds in the last year, has become friends with Kobayashi, enlisting the mummers to help build his Wing Bowl float and partnering with him on a podcast and a charity endeavor.

You know what he is? Luke asked rhetorically. Hes the Gandhi of eaters.

It was an odd comparison to make for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is that Mohandas Gandhi went on several protracted and well-publicized fasts during his life as vehicles to protest socioeconomic injustice. Its hard to imagine Gandhi linked to a hedonistic, debauched spectacle that celebrates overweight overeaters and emaciated strippers.

As absurd as it all sounded, Babe Gandhi (Mohandas Ruth?) promised Cataldi and Luke and the rest that he would put on an excellent show. He had, after all, been training. When asked about his routine, Kobayashi said he was eating 200 wings a day to prepare for the eventto which Al Morganti quipped: thats a lot of dead chickens.

On Friday, as predicted, Kobayashi consumed many dead chickensmore dead chickens, in fact, than anyone had ever eaten at the Wing Bowl in its 20-year history. When it was over, Kobayashi won the event after devouring 337 wings, which was 66 more than the second-place finisher and defending-champion Jonathan Squibb ate, and 82 more than the previous record.

Last year at Wing Bowl, I set the world cheesesteak speed record to great applause, Kobayaski said through his interpretermaybe-girlfriend Maggie James. (When Cataldi asked if they were "together," James replied were always together; you take cream with your coffee.) This year, I wanted to set the wing record. Im honored to do so.

The idea of eating 200 wings or morelast years winner, Super Squibb, downed 255 wingsmade me visualize one of those upset stomach commercials about nausea, heartburn, vomiting and other maladies. Even so, Kobayashi was the favorite to shatter the previous record. He was the last man to enter the arena on Fridaya spot usually reserved for the defending champand he had built a reputation as the worlds premiere competitive glutton.

At one time or another, Kobayashi has been the champion of consumption in various culinary contests, including, but not limited to, Ontario Wood Fired Pizza (43 slices in 12 minutes), Gringo Bandito Tacos (81 in 10 minutes), Nathans Hot Dogs (64.5 in 10 minutes), The Glutton Bowl (31 hotdogs and 55 cow brains), Krystal Hamburgers (93), Singapore wontons (370 in eight minutes), Pizza Hut PZone (5 34 pounds in six minutes), Singapore chicken satay (5.419 kg in 12 minutes), Taiwan lamb pot (24 pots in five and a half minutes), Golden Palace.net Lobster Rolls (41 in 10 minutes) and Johnson Brats (58 in 10 minutes). Now you can add Wing Bowl champion to his long list of gastrointestinal titles.

Those performances have made Kobayashi one of the few full-time competitive eaters in the worldmost have other jobs to pay the billsbut they have also led to problems. He said hes developed jaw arthritis that sometimes makes it painful to chew or even open his mouth wide enough to insert a stick of gum. Kobayashi, who likened his jaw issues to a pitcher in baseball who throws his arm out after overusing it, said he was also concerned with the potential long-term health ramifications of his chosen profession, from intestinal issues to stomach ulcers to cancer. And yet he has no desire to slow his schedule or retire. After his Wing Bowl winwhich earned him 20,000 and a gold ringKobayashi said he plans to defend his title next year.

Life, Kobayashi said in English, and without the need for his translator, is short.

E-mail John Gonzalez at jgonzalez@comcastsportsnet.com

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