NEW YORK (AP) — Dental hygiene scholar Miki Sudo of Florida has gained her tenth title on the annual Nathan’s Well-known Fourth of July sizzling canine consuming contest.

Sudo consumed 51 sizzling canine in 10 minutes on Thursday in New York Metropolis — and set a brand new world file for ladies.

The 38-year-old defending champion final yr gained after forcing down 39 1/2 sizzling canine. She defeated 13 opponents from around the globe, together with 28-year-old rival Mayoi Ebihara of Japan. Ebihara got here in second after consuming 37 sizzling canine in 10 minutes. She was additionally the runner-up in 2023.

With the occasion’s greatest star —- Joey “Jaws” Chestnut — out of the competition this yr, Sudo’s end result arrange a potential situation wherein the ladies’s champ out-eats the lads’s winner. Geoffrey Esper, who got here second final yr, additionally has a private better of 51, however solely ate 49 final yr.

Chestnut, who gained 16 out of the earlier 17 contests, isn’t attending the competitors over a sponsorship tiff. As a substitute, he’ll compete towards troopers at a U.S. Military base in El Paso later within the day. That leaves the standard Brooklyn occasion vast open for a brand new winner within the males’s division, with eaters from around the globe competing on America’s Independence Day to see what number of sizzling canine they’ll eat in 10 minutes.

1000’s of followers flock annually to the occasion held outdoors the unique Nathan’s location in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, a beachfront vacation spot with amusement parks and a carnivalesque summer season tradition. ESPN is broadcasting the competition reside. The boys’s will start at roughly 12:20 p.m.

Opponents are coming from over a dozen states and 5 continents, with prospects from Brazil, Japan, the UK, South Korea, Australia and the Czech Republic vying for the coveted title and $10,000 prize cash.

“There’s going to be a brand new champion,” Australian James Webb, who holds a world file for consuming 70 doughnuts in eight minutes, stated at a preview occasion in New York on Wednesday.

Final yr Chestnut, of Indiana, chewed his technique to the title by downing 62 canine and buns in 10 minutes. The file, which he set in 2021, is 76.

“I’m going to be pushing myself,” Sudo stated Wednesday. Her rival Mayoi Ebihara, from Japan, stated by a translator that she would eat till she passes out, with a aim of downing 50 sizzling canine.

Chestnut was initially disinvited from the occasion over a sponsorship take care of Inconceivable Meals, an organization that makes a speciality of plant-based meat substitutes.

Main League Consuming, which organizes the Nathan’s Well-known contest, has since stated it walked again the ban, however Chestnut determined to spend the vacation with the troops anyway.

Chestnut stated he wouldn’t return to the Coney Island contest with out an apology.

The occasion on the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, scheduled to start at 5 p.m. ET, will use conventional franks, with Chestnut trying to out-eat 4 troopers in 5 minutes.

Despite the fact that he gained’t be consuming their vegan merchandise, Inconceivable Meals is selling Chestnut’s YouTube livestream of the exhibition by flying airplanes with banners over Los Angeles and Miami. The corporate may even donate to a company supporting navy households primarily based on the variety of sizzling canine eaten on the occasion, a spokesperson stated.