19 Sep 2011 Jacksonville Wing Ding Eating Championship

The festival’s Chicken Wing-Eating Championship, a 12-minute all-you-can-eat style competition with a $3,000 a prize purse, will be sanctioned this year by Major League Eating, the governing body of all stomach-centric sport. Chili’s of Jacksonville will be providing more than one hundred pounds of wings for the competition.

Thomas, the 105-pound eating phenom from Alexandria, VA, is the #5-ranked eater in the world and recently devoured 183 buffalo wings (6.84 lbs of wing meat) in 12 minutes. In Jacksonville, she’ll face #17-ranked Osthoff, an Iowan who captured the Canadian wing-eating championship in Toronto earlier this summer.

Also chomping for the title will be Major League Eating’s Rookie of the Year, Adrian Morgan of Baton Rouge. In a recent overseas eating tour for U.S. troops with NAVY Entertainment, #14-ranked Morgan downed 20 hardboiled eggs in 84 seconds, setting a ‘battleship record’ aboard the USS FITZGERALD.

“Lithe and graceful, Sonya’s deft handling of chicken wings has given her the edge over male competitors including the #1-eater in the world, Joey Chestnut,” said Richard Shea, president of Major League Eating. “Morgan, however, is highly skilled in debris food having pushed the Sonya to overtime in the crawfish eating championship. This battle of the sexes will be a battle for the ages.”

Prior to the Championship competition at 1:00 p.m., an undercard round featuring local celebrities and media personalities will take place at 12:15 p.m. The Jacksonville Wing Ding Festival is put on by the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce.

For more information, visit www.jacksonville-arkansas.com.