In trouble: Cheating allegations rock Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest

This is the sausage.

The world of eating competitions has been rocked by hard-to-swallow allegations that a contestant in this year’s Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest cheated to boost his score.

Nick Wehry, the husband of women’s champion Miki Sudo, is accused of using sleight of hand during the July 4 contest to inflate the number of hot dogs he ate and falsely place himself among the sport’s elite contenders, according to two sources closely connected to the competition.

“He was 100% cheating,” a source told The Post on Tuesday.

On the day of the competition, Wehry tallied a respectable 46.75 hot dogs at the Coney Island callout, placing him in fourth place, according to footage and reports from The Post and ESPN, among others.

However, that number later rose to 51.75 on the official Major League Eating (MLE) results website, with sources claiming he was credited with five more whole sausages than he was actually served during the competition.

Eaters’ scores are calculated based on the number of empty plates stacked in front of their seats after the allotted time has elapsed. Any “leftovers” left uneaten on the top plate of the stack – pieces of bun or pieces of beef – are deducted from the total score, as determined by the judges.

Each plate on the competition table is initially loaded with five hot dogs, so each plate left behind counts as five hot dogs eaten when the judges calculate the contestants’ scores.

Wehry was accused of “stealing” plates from another competitor’s stack and placing them on his own place setting in order to raise his score above 50 – which is considered the threshold that separates everyday competitors from the true top dogs of the sport.

Even though the alleged point increase did not improve Wehry’s position, it did bring him over the magical 50 mark.

“There are a number of people who have eaten 40 hot dogs in this competition, there are far fewer who have eaten more than 50, and even fewer who have eaten over 60,” another source said.

“If someone has been proven to have eaten more than 50 calories, they belong to a very small elite club of competitive eaters.”

Patrick Bertoletti, this year’s champion, devoured 58 hot dogs and buns in the 10-minute binge, bested 13 competitors in the battle for the title and took home $10,000 as the mustard belt holder. Second and third place finishers Geoff Esper and James Webb managed 53 and 52 hot dogs and took home prizes of $5,000 and $2,500 respectively. Wehry, who came in fourth, would have received $1,500 – while the fifth place finisher received $1,000.

Sudo herself ate 51 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, setting a new world record for women in her competition before the men.

According to one source, Wehry requested a recount after the judge’s first count because he feared his actual result would not be sufficient given the high level of competition.

“I can only assume that after the license plate was stolen, he demanded a recount,” the source claimed.

Such accusations are no small thing in the world of eating competitions, where cheating in any form is frowned upon.

A long post on an Internet eating contest forum contains videos of this year’s competition as well as time codes that supposedly show Wehry behaving suspiciously, such as pushing plates back and forth on the table.

In the videos viewed by The Washington Post, Wehry can be seen hovering around the stage long after the competition ended, appearing to pick up and move objects from the table, including at least one empty plate, which he twirls back and forth in his hand.

In a text message, Wehry told the Washington Post he was appalled by the allegations, stressing that he “didn’t steal anything” and denying that he had “called for a recount” – despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

“If MLE finds that I counted incorrectly, then correct my number. My ranking has not changed in this case. I would never want to accept a ranking or number that I did not deserve,” Wehry said.

“I would never cheat in a competition, no matter what the reason. People who know me know that.”

Wehry said the allegations surprised him, pointing out that they only came to light after a video that appeared to show the competitive eater mixing plates went viral on the Internet.

“I guess the video looks like my number was entered incorrectly. I am truly sorry if that was the case.”

In a telephone conversation, Sudo, the world’s top competitive eater, vehemently denied the possibility that the judges had messed up her husband’s count.

“I was watching Nick the whole time, the camera was on him the whole time, the jury just couldn’t have been wrong,” she told The Post before abruptly hanging up.

Major League Eating, which sponsors the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest and is responsible for the official judging of the event, said it launched an official investigation after learning of the allegations.

“MLE has carefully considered the complaint and reviewed the video provided to us. Like many other professional sports leagues, it is our policy not to overturn referees’ decisions after the final scores have been recorded.”

MLE had no further comment on the investigation, including whether it was ongoing.

One of the sources insisted that the final result should have been different.

“I believe that the final score of 46.75 should be his final result and I also believe that they should consider this as deliberate cheating and disqualify him from the overall competition,” they said.

“I think it would be the best possible situation and a step to ensure that the integrity of the competition is maintained in the future,” they added.

A disqualification would be an unprecedented step and has never happened before in an MLE-sanctioned competition, although allegations of such a move are not unknown.

At the 1998 competition, the petite 1.68 m tall and 61 kg Japanese Hirofumi Nakajima won the coveted mustard championship belt after eating 19 sausages in 12 minutes.

His main rival, the 6’7″ and 350-pound Ed “The Animal” Krachie, accused Nakajima of taking muscle relaxants to gain a competitive advantage. The champion denied these allegations.

Then in 2011, the winner of the contest, Steve Keiner, was caught on video appearing to shovel a hot dog into his mouth before the competition began, prompting runner-up Charles “Hungry” Hardy to demand a rematch, which Keiner refused.