Champion competitive eater Joey "Jaws" Chestnut has gobbled his way to a 15th win in New York's annual Fourth of July hot dog eating competition.
Chestnut powered down 63 hot dogs and buns at the annual Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Content held on the Fourth of July in Coney Island.
The contest was interrupted when a protester wearing a Darth Vader mask rushed the stage, with Chestnut putting them in a brief chokehold before officials intervened.
Another protester in a white stormtrooper mask also snuck behind the competitors and hoisted a sign saying: "Expose Smithfield's Deathstar."
Smithfield manufactures Nathan's hot dogs.
"It's beautiful to be back here" in front of a throng of spectators, Chestnut told ESPN after his feat, which the 38-year-old managed while wearing a surgical boot because of a leg injury.
"It hurts, but I was in the zone for a little bit. I was ignoring it," he said.
However, the pain eventually slowed his pace in the 10-minute competition.
Last year Chestnut topped his own record by consuming 76 franks and buns.
Women's record-holder Miki Sudo downed 40 hot dogs to win the women's title after skipping last year's events because she was pregnant.
Sudo, of Tampa, Florida, set the women's record at 48 and a half hot dogs in 2020.
She and Nick Wehry, a fellow competitive eater whom she met through the Nathan's contest in 2018, welcomed son Max last July.
From dad's arms, the baby watched his 36-year-old mother notch her eighth win. She told ESPN afterward that she hoped he would some day take a message away from it.
"I want to set an example," she said, "to do things that you love and push yourself to your absolute limits and, when things get difficult, to still give it a try. And, you know, you might actually just come out victorious."
ABC/AP
