The world number one, Takeru Kobayashi, was noticeably absent, leaving the spotlight for 100-pound Sonya Thomas of Alexandria, Virginia, and San Jose’s Joey Chestnut.

“I’m ready. My stomach’s ready,” said Thomas, who estimated her stomach capacity is 18 to 20 pounds of food and liquid. And she probably knows well enough to make that guess.

Born Lee Sun-kyung in South Korea, Thomas has earned the nickname “The Black Widow” on the competitive eating circuit, due to her ability to out-gorge men two or three times her size. Her tall, slim build is not restricted by a layer of fat around her abdomen, allowing greater expansion of her stomach. This “fat belt” theory was first explored when Kobayashi rose to fame several years ago.

Thomas has lived in the United States for nearly a decade, but her appetite was well known before she had ever heard of eating contests. It is said that her parents struggled to keep up with the food bills their ravenous daughter was amassing.

“I don’t eat fast, but I can eat a lot,” Thomas said. “When I saw the eating competitions, I thought I wanted to try that. I knew that would be easy.”

Before joining the IFOCE in 2003, Thomas held a job managing a Burger King restaurant at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. There, she amazed co-workers with the sheer amounts she could put away.

“I liked working at Burger King because I like fast food,” she said confidently. “My life is fast, everything is fast. I cannot take it slow.”

As the contest neared its halfway point, it became clear who the head of the class were. Thomas, Chestnut and LeFevre were still going strong as other contestants slowed or had stopped eating completely.

When the contest ended, the margin of victory was two gyoza. Two. With 210 eaten, Thomas had to settle for second place and $1,500 in prize money. Chestnut took home $2,500 for the win. LeFevre ate 167 and won $750.

“That was close, she’s amazing,” Chestnut said afterward. “Gyoza’s a tasty fast food, so it was easy.” He next heads to Reno for a ribs competition. He’s shooting for eight pounds.

“I’m full,” said Thomas, visibly disappointed with second place. “It doesn’t matter if it’s one gyoza or one half, I still lost.” She added that since gyoza are so easy to eat, she expected to win. A week earlier, she had won a Chinese dumpling contest in Hong Kong, so she felt well-prepared for gyoza.

To help put the feat into perspective, Masaki Nakamoto, a JACCC staff member who was a last-minute entry in the competition, finished a paltry 26 gyoza before he gave up.

“That was really tough,” he said with resignation. “Sonya was incredible.”

Thomas said her “comfort food” is Korean hot pot stew and bulgogi. She wants to open her own business when her competitive eating days rumble to a close.

“I’d like to own a restaurant. I always like to work with food. Fast food, of course.”

That’s an almost comically appropriate goal for this petite woman whose talent has always been her strength at meal time. Even after the Nisei Week contest, she wasn’t exhausted or slowed by the volume of food she’d eaten.

With the bounce still very much in her speech, she said, “I never get full. Not at all.”