Calgary woman crowned Canada's hotdog eating champ

A Calgary woman is off to the Big Apple to take a bite out of an international hotdog eating contest after winning the Canadian Women's Championship Saturday.

Nicole Anderson says her secret was taking the time to put ketchup on each of the 12 hotdogs she devoured in just 10 minutes at the contest held at CrossIron Mills mall just north of Calgary.

"I just signed up this morning so it's all happening pretty fast," she said.

The Calgary native will head to New York City on July 4 for Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest finals held on Coney Island.

She'll be joined by the two overall winners of the Calgary competition.

Aaron Osthoff of Iowa took first, downing 33 dogs and buns in 10 minutes.

"He'll get probably, 8th, 9th, 10th place," said Jade Alberts, director of operations for Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs Canada. "These guys are ... machines; they're athletes; they're unbelievable."

University of Alberta grad student Lee Vilinksy came in second with 16 hotdogs, which was good enough to make him the Canadian champion.

Vilinsky's originally from New York, and says he is happy to make a trip home for the finals.

"It's actually a lot tougher than people think," said Dave Exley of Calgary, who downed seven hotdogs in Saturday's contest. "It's not how much you can eat in a single sitting so much as how fast you can get them down."

The world record is 68 hotdogs held by competitive eating legend Joey Chestnut.