ROCKFORD -- For 23 years, she was queen of Corner Bar, the 110-pound legend who ate 42 1/2 hot dogs, chili and all, in one sitting.
No matter how others tried -- and they did -- they could not catch up with Sharon VanDuinen, the former Sharon Scholten. Nobody could knock her from the throne relished by so many. Then along came Balinda Gould. Step aside Sharon, there's a new hot dog-eating queen. Gould, a 41-year-old mother of one who works part time at a deli counter, on Friday gulped 43 hot dogs -- with chili and buns. She barely made it. With 90 seconds left before the mandatory four hours was up, with tears rolling down her face and in front of a bar of cheering patrons, she swallowed. Down went hot dog No. 43. She went home a short time later. And up came hot dog No. 43, followed quickly by others. "It's that chili," she said. "The chili's what kicked in."

Unlike VanDuinen, Gould said she had no plans to become an ambassador for Corner Bar. She did it only for the money: $500. "I didn't think they'd take pictures and talk to ya and announce everything," Gould said Sunday. "I just wanted to eat the stupid hot dogs, get the money and leave." She said she planned to use the money to buy Christmas gifts for her 8-year-old daughter, Gabrielle, and for airline tickets so she and her fiance can get married next spring in Las Vegas. She was listening to radio station WLAV-FM recently when she learned about the prize for breaking the record.

She tried breaking it twice in November -- eating 20 hot dogs the first time and 28 the second, she said. This time, she tried a new strategy -- no beer, less soda, less water and less coffee. She started at 2:21 p.m., smoking cigarettes and wearing a paint-stained Notre Dame sweatshirt. The first 25 hot dogs slid down in about an hour, then she slowed. Corner Bar manager Diana France said she and others watched Gould closely to make sure she didn't go to the bathroom to make room for more hot dogs. That would be cheating.

"She had tears rolling down her face for the last dog, trying to swallow it," France said. "Everybody was doing the countdown."
She finished just before 6:21 p.m. Bar owners Jeff Wolfe and Andy Tidey wrote her a check. Gould said she had to call in sick the next day from her job at Story's Fresh Meat and Deli, north of Rockford.
"My gall bladder's having hissy fits with me," she said. "I puffed up because of the sodium, like a balloon."

VanDuinen, the dethroned queen, was 26 in March 1982 when she broke the record held by Dizzy Densmore. Several months later, VanDuinen defeated Densmore in a face-to-face eat-off. She became an ambassador for the bar, occasionally appearing as a celebrity and signing autographs.

VanDuinen is 49, married with three children and living in the Jenison area. She has no plans to face off against Gould over a plate of dogs. "My reign is over," she said. "I'm not capable of eating like that anymore, nor do I have the desire." She hopes Gould will take over as a figurehead for the bar.

"With the title comes responsibility," VanDuinen said.