And The Hot Dog Eating Champions Are...

Could you eat seven hot dogs in eight minutes?

That's what each of the four members of this year's championship team did in the Alameda County Fair's annual hot dog eating contest on Wednesday.

The squad called "Rice and Beans" ate 31 of the 40 hot dogs laid out in front of them in the alloted time.

They defeated two other teams, BGP and CB4, as they called themselves.

"Rice and Beans" consists of four employees of the Alameda County Fairgrounds -- Raul, Joey, Claudio and little Raul.

Two of the young men are from Livermore, one is from Brentwood and another is from Tracy.

The co-workers said they entered the contest to "represent the fairgrounds." None of them said they felt ill after eating an average of more than seven and a half hot dogs apiece. In fact, the team ate some more dogs for a television news crew that showed up late and wanted to get video of them chowing down.

The contest was held before a big, cheering crowd at the fair's Festival Square.

Each team member had to carry a bowl in their mouth around a circle and then eat condiments and chili from it. When all four members completed the circuit, then their team could start eating the hot dogs. "Rice and Beans" finished ahead of the other two teams in this preliminary competition and got off to a quick start on the dogs.

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