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Full Article - Click on the article you would like to read.
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Written By: Kyle Tucker |
June 18, 2003 |
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Written By: Mike Holtzclaw |
July 4, 2003 |
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Written By: Stephanie Heinatz |
July 5, 2003 |
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Written By: Mike Holtzclaw July 4, 2003 NN man puts appetite on line today in NYC “Would you like to know what I had for lunch today?” The little-boy chuckle in Carson Hughes’ voice suggests that you probably don’t want to know the answer. But you take the bait and ask. “I put 12 hot dogs on the grill, and I got me 12 buns, and I ate 12 dogs in 12 minutes,” he says. “I went in increments broken down by the minute. In the first minute I downed five dogs. After that, I cruised a little bit until I got to 10. The last two, I just kind of enjoyed.” Hughes is in training. The 44-year-old Newport News resident, a cylinder technician at National Welding Supply, will be in New York today as one of 21 participants in the International Federation of Competitive Eating’s annual world hot-dog eating championships. Hughes — 5-foot-9, 237 pounds — is a newcomer to the world of competitive eating. His only previous event was two years ago, when he won a contest at a restaurant in Grafton by eating 2 1/2 pounds of collard greens (“ham hocks and everything”) in 17.5 seconds. It earned him the nickname “Collard Green,”which was the biggest thing he had going for him last month when he decided to enter a regional hot-dog contest at MacArthur Center in Norfolk. With a trip to the world championships on the line, Hughes stunned the crowd by defeating “Crazy Legs” Conti of New York, who is ranked among the top 20 in the world of competitive eating and who once set a record by eating 168 oysters in 10 minutes , and he says he was ready to eat more if Conti began to catch up. “I’m a competitor, and I wasn’t about to let him take that Virginia trophy back to New York,” Hughes says. “It only takes me 10 seconds to eat a hot dog, and I had my next dog in my hand waiting for him. I was ready to eat more if I needed to.” George Shea, chairman of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, was at MacArthur Center that day. And he was thrilled at what he saw, saying Hughes’ victory over Conti was comparable to a novice golfer stepping onto a course and beating PGA star Phil Mickelson. “Collard Green is a raw talent,” Shea says. “the hot dogs are cooked, but his talent is raw. He’s an intuitive eater. When I saw him, I was impressed by his enthusiasm. But many people are enthusiastic — very few can eat like he eats.” Hughes prepared some for the qualifying event in Norfolk but still went largely on instinct. Since then, he has been working on his skills, mastering such strategies as the Solomon Technique — which involves eating the hot dog and bun separately, dunking the bun in water to soften it, but being careful not to leave any hunks of bread in the water dish that would be subtracted from the eater’s final total. He’s learned that competitive eaters consume cabbage by the pound and drink water by the gallon in an attempt to stretch their stomachs. For winning the event in Norfolk, Hughes was given 60 pounds of hot dogs. Most of them are gone now, because his training regimen includes 15 to 20 per day. “I’ve tried cross-training on some other different foods,” he says. “Last weekend I tried with CiCi’s Pizza. You’re not going to believe this — I’m still amazed myself — but I ate 24 slices of CiCi’s Pizza in 10 minutes. Three bites per slice. People were looking at me like, ‘Is this guy part iguana, or what?’” At today’s event on Coney Island, he will be in the big leagues. Kobayashi, the Japanese eater who holds the world record of 50 1/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes, will be the heavy favorite. Eric Booker, the American record holder at 28, will be there, and Crazy Legs Conti, too. The field also includes 400-pound former football star William “The Refrigerator” Perry, and Sonya Thomas of Alexandria, who Shea calls “the Anika Sorenstam of competitive eating.” Shea believes that Hughes can top 20 dogs today. If he can reach two dozen, he’ll have a chance at finishing among the top five. Hughes thinks he can do it. “I’ve been timing myself in intervals — six minutes, two minutes, whatever,” he says. “The other day I ate 12 hot dogs in six minutes, which means I’m halfway there. But in a competition like Coney Island, each guy up there could eat 20 easy before they start falling off like flies. I’m just going to go up there, eat a bunch of hot dogs, and enjoy being around a bunch of really great competitors. Mike Holtzclaw can be reached at 757-928-6479 or by e-mail at mholtzclaw@dailypress.com |
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Written By: Stephanie Heinatz July 5, 2003 Even though Carson “Collard Greens” Hughes only ate 15 hot dogs in 12 minutes on Friday at the 88th annual Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island, N.Y., he left the stage with his head held high. “It was kind of hot out there today and the competition was really tough,“ Hughes said. For the third year in a row, Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi outate all 21 contestants by putting down 44 1/2 dogs. “There’s a difference between eating hot dogs inside MacArthur Center Mall and outside on a national stage,” Hughes said laughing, still trying to catch up to the excitement of the day. “It was 720 seconds of pure dog dementia.” Hughes, a 44-year-old Newport News resident, qualified for Friday’s competition at a local eat-out in Norfolk on June 14. He beat Crazy Legs Conti — who is ranked 16th in the world in competitive eating — and won a trip to New York for the international competition. “I knew I came here to fight for third place,” Hughes said even though he didn’t quite make it. “But that’s OK. I’m real pleased with how I performed and it has been a great experience. Words cannot describe it.” While Hughes was on stage trying to out-gorge his competition, his wife, Tereasa was at home eating two hot dogs of her own. “I don’t eat hot dogs at all because they make me sick,” she said. “But I wanted to be with him today.” Hughes said, laughing, that Tereasa must have just wanted to suffer with him — even from a distance. The couple chose to stay separated for the holiday so that Hughes could enjoy as much of New York as possible. Tereasa said if they both had gone, he wouldn’t have been able to do as much because money would have run out quicker. With the exception of the separation, Hughes said, “This is an American Dream. I can’t think of any better way to spend the Fourth of July.” Stephanie Heinatz can be reached at 757-247-4760 or by e-mail at sheinatz@dailypress.com |
