Tiny Korean American Woman Wins Buffalo Wing-Eating Contest

hen it comes to wolfing wings, Sonya Thomas is a wiz.

     The 105-pound (48-kilogram) competitive eater who goes by ``The Black Widow'' bested a dozen beefy rivals Saturday night, scarfing 173 wings in 12 minutes to win the wing-eating contest at the National Buffalo Wing Festival.

     ``That's 5.17 pounds of wings,'' said Brian Kahle, spokesman for the annual event in the city where Buffalo wings were born. In metric, that would be 2.35 kilograms of wings.

     Thomas, 40, who is originally from South Korea and now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, also held the festival's previous record of 161 wings in 12 minutes, set in 2004.

     ``She's the crowd favorite,'' Kahle said. ``It was 12 huge guys and her.'' Thomas has set numerous records in competitive eating events, including 37 hot dogs in 12 minutes; 35 bratwursts in 10 minutes; 11 pounds of cheesecake in 9 minutes; 44 lobsters in 12 minutes; and 250 Tater Tots in 5 minutes.

     She is ranked No. 5 by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. According to the federation's Web site, No. 1-ranked Joey Chestnut holds the 12-minute record for chicken wings, downing 7.5 pounds (3.4 kilograms) of them May 21.