Fountain Square Coney Eating Contest

New York is known for their annual 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, in Cincinnati we have the Coney Eating Contest which happened earlier today on Fountain Square. The champion took home a trophy, t-shirt and a $50 Camp Washington gift card. Twelve coney combatants took the stage today and faced off to be crowned the coney eating champion. One of the managers from Camp Washington asked if I was going to go for it, I said no thanks, I've had plenty of coneys the past 6 months. Plus I'm a marathon runner not a sprinter! I opted to take photos instead.

The rules were simple, no dunking the coneys in water, if you puke you are disqualified and whomever eats the most coneys in 3 minutes is the winner. There was a wide range of contestants, some have never done a food competition before and had it on their bucket list, one contestant previously competed in the Fountain Square ice cream eating contest and you had last years winner Joe LaRue. Joe's goal was to eat 15 coneys and repeat as champion.

It was a fun, exciting, spirited, messy and kind of gross 3 minutes of coney eating action. A couple of people put up a good effort but could not take down the reigning champion Joe LaRue. Joe finished with 14 coneys just one shy of his goal of 15, but he did eat that 15th coney as he held up the championship trophy.

Click here to view the entire 2011 Coney Eating Contest photo gallery