he president of Major League Eating has stated he's “very excited” that the UK is internet hosting a qualifying occasion for “our World Cup”, the annual Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest, for the primary time.

A dozen opponents, many from the UK, can be going “cheek to jowl” consuming Nathan’s Famous sizzling canine within the 10-minute competitors on Saturday at Seal Bay Resort’s White Horse Complex in Selsey, West Sussex.

Major League Eating president Richard Shea, 54, stated it was “high time we visit England to conduct a qualifier for our biggest event of the year”.

The occasion is hosted by Nathan’s Famous, a series of fast-food eating places specialising in sizzling canine, and can see UK contestants compete to qualify for the world championship males’s and girls’s contests that may happen in Coney Island, New York, on July 4 2024.

The world championship contest might see UK opponents compete towards a roster of top-ranked aggressive eaters from international locations all over the world, together with the US, Japan, Australia and Brazil.

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Among the UK hopefuls is Max Stanford, whom Mr Shea stated was an “eater of note based in London”, who has eaten 141 Oreos in 5 minutes, 23 McPlant burgers in lower than an hour, and 50 cream eggs in 24 minutes, amongst different achievements.

Mr Shea informed the PA news company that Mr Stanford is perhaps “the odds-on favourite for the Brits in this but I’ve never seen him eat hot dogs so you never know”.

Joey Chestnut, from Westfield, Indiana, at present holds the world report of 76 sizzling canine and buns eaten in 10 minutes and earned his sixteenth title as sizzling dog-eating world champion this July 4.

Miki Sudo, from Port Richey, Florida, is the nine-time feminine champion, with an all-time better of 48.5 Nathan’s Famous sizzling canine and buns eaten in 10 minutes.

Mr Shea stated that, based on oral historical past, a sizzling canine consuming competitors has occurred each July 4 in Coney Island since 1916, the 12 months the primary Nathan’s Famous restaurant was opened.

He stated the primary contest was held “when four immigrants to America were trying to prove who was most patriotic on July 4.

“An Irishman named Jim Mullen reportedly ate the most hot dogs. He ate 13 Nathan’s hotdogs with buns in 10 minutes.”

Now, Major League Eating, the governing physique of all stomach-centric sports activities, sanctions Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Circuit and ensures that security requirements are in place at every occasion.

Mr Shea stated the explanations individuals undertake aggressive consuming have “changed dramatically” through the years.

He stated: “Way back, I would say 25 years ago, I think people did it out of curiosity or they prided themselves as a ‘buffet buster’, a big eater.

“It’s just become more that the drive is competitiveness. Our eaters are less of a big buffet eating – you can imagine, a braggadocious big American eater.

“The eaters, for the last 12 years or more, have really become more like athletes. We have a lot of runners and people from various sporting disciplines that also compete in food.”

Other opponents within the UK qualifier embody John Dawes, from Billingham in Durham, Radim Dvoracek, who's travelling from the Czech Republic, and Ronnie Hartmann, the quantity nineteenth ranked aggressive eater on the planet, from the US.