Starting with the 2018 competitional season, fanciers from the province of Moldova have set up a competition that perfectly combines extreme long distance competitions and prizes. Thus, the “Moldova Star Marathon” club was born, a competition that offers fanciers from this province the opportunity to win a fairly consistent prize money. At the end of the season, the first 10 yearlings nominated for the “Moldova Star Marathon” club are awarded at the provincial level, pigeons who met the norm at the Yearlings Extreme long distance category, and the value of the prizes is proportional to the total amount accumulated and to the place occupied in this ranking.

Following discussions held at the Provincial Exhibition of Moldova in 2017, representatives of the county associations that are part of this group set up the “Moldova Star Marathon” club. Since from the beginning, it was set to be a competition that financially rewards the participants, and fanceirs can only enter the race with yearlings, who will have to meet the norm at the Yearlings Extreme long distance category in the current season to win one of the prizes. At the end of the competition year, the first 10 yearlings at the provincial level and nominated to participate in the “Moldova Star Marathon” club will be awarded according to a very well established algorithm. The first place’s prize that represents 17% of the total prize money, the second place has 15%, the third place has 12%, and the places from 4 to 10 are awarded with 8% of the prize fund. It should be added that in order to participate, the fanciers must pay a contribution of 10 lei (~2 €) for each pigeon nominated at the beginning of the season.

Over 5,000 pigeons already nominated for the 2020 season!
The first season in which the “Moldova Star Marathon” competition was organized was the 2018 season. Over 2800 custom rings have been sold since the first edition, the number of participants constantly increasing every year. In 2019 an important number has been reached, with 3,936 rings being sold, but for the 2020 season we are already talking about more than 5,000 nominated pigeons. The very high requests were also the reason why the distribution of personalized rings was given up, at this moment preferring to nominate the series of pigeons. Team Perijoc & Polon, from Suceava, won the last edition of the club “Moldova Star Marathon”. In addition to the prize they have won, for the two pigeon fanciers, winning the first of the ten places of this special championship is a real performance, considering the fierce competition that takes place in Moldova at this category of races.

The novelty of the 2020 season: the auction of the winners “Moldova Star Marathon”
Because the 10 pigeons that win one of the prizes are with any doubt very valuable ones, one week before the Exhibition of the province of Moldova an auction will be held, in which either the winning pigeons will be available directly, either sons or daughters of them, the decision being made by the owners themselves. It is very important to note that, initially, this auction, or rather, the pre-auction will be held for a week on a dedicated site. In the Provincial Exhibition Hall this auction will resume from the final price reached in the online pre-auction. In other words, whoever wants to see the sons or daughters of the winning pigeons live or, as an option of the owners, even some of the winner pigeons themselves and want to buy them, can do this thing right in the showroom.