Eater wins fifth Nathan's hot dog contest

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NEW YORK, July 4 (UPI) -- Competitive eater Joey Chestnut won his fifth straight Nathan's International Hot Dog Eating Contest at the annual Fourth of July event in New York.

Chestnut downed 62 hot dogs with their buns in the space of 10 minutes Monday at Nathan's Famous on Coney Island, finishing nine sausages ahead of second-place finisher Patrick Bertoletti, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

The eater fell short of his 68-hot dog world record, set at the 2009 competition.

"I'm feeling pretty damn good right now," Chestnut said. "At the end, I kept messing up my rhythm …(but) I just kept pushing."

Sonya Thomas took home the grand prize in the women's competition by downing 40 hot dogs.

Meanwhile, Chestnut rival Takeru Kobayashi, who was not allowed to participate in Monday's event because he refused to sign an exclusive contract with Major League Eating, downed 69 hot dogs in a concurrent event at the 230 Fifth bar in Manhattan.

"I think I showed them," Kobayashi said. "I'm very happy about my win today but I feel like I'm not at my peak. I think I could go up to 90 or 85."