[September 05, 2011] Winning 'Widow' earns 5th title by downing 183 wings Tweet Sep 05, 2011 (The Buffalo News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Sonya Thomas now calls Buffalo her "second home." And considering she's eaten more chicken wings in five sittings than many Buffalonians would in 50, many locals would be proud to accept her as one of their own. For the fifth straight year, Thomas, a 105-pounder from Alexandria, Va., won the National Buffalo Wing Eating Contest. She beat her own world record by eating 183 wings in 12 minutes, earning her the top cash prize of $1,500. "This is my new home now, they can't touch me!" Thomas said after her victory over Joey Chestnut, who is rated the No. 1 competitive eater in the world by Major League Eating. Chestnut, of San Jose, Calif., is known throughout the world for his five straight victories at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest held July 4 each year at Coney Island. He finished 174 wings on Sunday, almost a full single order short of Thomas. So while Chestnut might have the glory downstate, in Buffalo, it's all about the "Black Widow," Thomas. "I am really proud of [beating Chestnut], because a lot of contests I compete with the men, but chicken wing is me, it's my thing," said Thomas, who finished first among women at Nathan's this year and is ranked fifth in the world among competitive eaters. The eating contest was the main event Sunday at the National Buffalo Wing Festival, held at Coca-Cola Field. Participants each were given 8- pound trays of chicken wings. After the 12 minutes was up, their trays were weighed to determine the champion. The number of wings they consumed is based on the average weight of one wing. Thomas and Chestnut ate nearly 13 pounds of chicken wings between them. For first-timers, like Jeremy White of WGR 550, the contest was a struggle. "It is a lot harder than it looks. You get tired. You go in thinking all you gotta do is bite the wing, but then you gotta swallow it and it's just nonstop," said White, who with .85 pounds downed barely a tenth as many wings as Thomas. Sunday also featured the blind taste contest, which allowed select visitors the chance to vote for their favorite wings in seven different categories. It was a big weekend for out-of- state wing joints, which nearly swept the medium, hot and extra hot categories. Legend Larry's of Sheboygan, Wis., took first in medium and hot, and Ruchda Wings of Atlanta took first in extra hot. Only local favorites the Anchor Bar and Bocce Club took home any honors in the "traditional" Buffalo flavor categories. Of the chicken wing's national reach, festival founder Drew Cerza said "the cool thing about it is that everywhere it's gone they've come up with styles that represent that region's area, so it makes more fun." Despite the blind taste test results, Cerza said: "Nobody does it better than Buffalo." Attendance for the weekend was 85,000, up almost 17 percent from 2010 but shy of 2009's record of 89,000 visitors. Cerza called the weekend "the best ever" and attributed the high attendance numbers to the summery weather. [email protected] ___ (c)2011 The Buffalo News (Buffalo, N.Y.) Visit The Buffalo News (Buffalo, N.Y.) at www.buffalonews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]