Nathan's Fourth of July hot dog eating contest: Joey Chestnut wins 5th straight with Kobayashi out 
 
 David Handschuh/News Sonia Thomas, left and Joey Chestnut were winners at the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest in Coney Island July 4th. 
 
 Joey "Jaws" Chestnut maintained pigout primacy Monday, winning his fifth straight mustard belt in Coney Island's hot dog eating contest. 
 
 But there could be an asterisk next to the title, since his renegade rival Takeru Kobayashi powered through what may be a new world record in an unsanctioned, simultaneous scarf-fest on a Manhattan rooftop. 
 
 Chestnut, the certified champ, choked down 62 dogs and water-soaked buns on the official Nathan's Famous stage - falling short of his 2009 world record of 68 dogs but ending with a healthy nine dog lead over her nearest competitor Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti. 
 
 Kobayashi, who was ineligible to compete in the beloved Brooklyn contest because he won't sign an exclusive contract with Major League Eating, put away 69 dogs purchased earlier in the day from the South Street Seaport Nathan's. 
 
 "I'm feeling pretty damn good right now," Chestnut, 27, said after the 10-minute televised competition wrapped. "At the end, I kept messing up my rhythm…(but) I just kept pushing." 
 
 "Some things you'll have to pry from my cold dead fingers," he said holding his yellow belt. "I'll do anything I can to win." 
 
 He didn't bite at questions about his nemesis, saying only "If that's what he wants to do, that's what he wants to do." 
 
 Women's champ Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas didn't mince her words. 
 
 "This was the big leagues," she said. "If Kobayashi wasn't involved, he was second string." 
 
 Kobayashi, 33, was arrested last year after crashing the event's stage. 
 
 "I think I showed them," he said after devouring his dogs two and three at a time. "I'm very happy about my win today but I feel like I'm not at my peak. I think I could go up to 90 or 85." 
 
 Steve Greenberg owns the rooftop bar that hosted the splinter event and said he paid Kobayashi an appearance fee. He showed his Nathan's receipt to prove the dogs were regulation. 
 
 "They (Nathan's) didn't know we were doing it…They would have filled the hotdogs with lead if they did," Greenberg, who owns the venue called 230 Fifth, told the News. 
 
 "I'm surprised how far he finished ahead of Chestnut," said rooftop watcher Chris Rauch, 29, from Hoboken. "It's great that he did it, but it wasn't in the competition so I don't think it should really count." 
 
 Organizers said Kobayashi gained 19 pounds from the chowdown. 
 
 Thomas, the petite female favorite, won with a jaw-dropping 40 dogs. 
 
 The 42-year-old fell one shy of her all-time record of 41 but ended with a 10 1/2-dog lead over her nearest competitor Juliet Lee. 
 
 "Whoa," she said when the contest ended. She raised her pink victory belt above her head and received a bouquet of pink roses. 
 
 ndillon@nydailynews.com ||||| CORRECTS POSITION OF THOMAS AND SUDO- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio watches hot dog eating contestants Sonya Thomas, left, and Miki Sudo, right, during a news conference to promote the upcoming Nathan's... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — The Black Widow has been outeaten. 
 
 Three-time defending champion Sonya Thomas lost her hot dog eating title Friday to 28-year-old Miki Sudo of Las Vegas, who wolfed down 34 franks and buns in 10 minutes to win the women's division of the annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island. 
 
 The 47-year-old Thomas, a native of South Korea who now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, was only able to devour 27 3/4 hot dogs and buns. She scarfed down a record 45 dogs and buns last year. 
 
 The men's division will be held later Friday. 
 
 Joey Chestnut, a 30-year-old San Jose, California, man nicknamed Jaws, hopes to put away his competition by downing a record 70 hot dogs in 10 minutes in the raucous event held just steps from the beach. Last year, Chestnut won with 69 franks and buns. Matt Stonie, who was second in 2013 with 51 dogs, returns for another run at the top spot. 
 
 With Chestnut's seventh-straight victory last year, he bested his former rival, Takeru Kobayashi, with most consecutive wins. In 2010, Kobayashi refused to sign an exclusive contract with Major League Eating, the food equivalent of the NFL, and was banned from competition. 
 
 This year, the Japanese native nicknamed the Tsunami will compete against five other competitive eaters at a separate event on Fifth Avenue in a quest to down the most hot dogs without buns in 10 minutes. 
 
 Coney Island's top four competitors weighed in Thursday at a pre-contest event presided over by Mayor Bill de Blasio. 
 
 All the competitors said they were fasting, but Irish contestant Colin Shirlow grabbed a free hot dog during the weigh-in to get a first taste of the Nathan's Famous dogs they'll be gobbling down.
– Competitive eating contests were in full force over the July 4th weekend—chow-down champion Joey Chestnut even got engaged before one of his recurring food feats. But there was a tragic ending for one participant in a South Dakota competition: Walter Eagle Tail choked to death last Thursday during a hot-dog-eating contest in Custer. Although paramedics tried to save the 47-year-old at the scene after a piece of hot dog apparently lodged in his throat, Eagle Tail died after being taken to a nearby hospital. "It all happened within minutes" Custer County’s sheriff tells the Rapid City Journal. The local chamber of commerce director said it was the first time "in memory" anyone had been injured at the annual event. It’s not, however, the first time someone has died while taking part in such a contest. A 60-year-old died during a sausage-eating contest in Romania last year, per the Huffington Post, and a Florida man choked to death in 2012 after devouring dozens of live cockroaches in a bid to win a python. That's exactly why the International Federation of Competitive Eating has strict rules in place during the contests it sponsors (it appears the Custer contest was not one of them). "Walter was just being Walter, having fun when he entered this contest," a friend tells the Journal, adding that Eagle Tail enjoyed a good joke and interacting with the customers who purchased the bear-claw necklaces he made and sold.