At the end of the 2020 competition season, only 869 pigeon fanciers managed to meet the norm of this category. This means that it is not a category reachable by everyone, the eight races required to achieve the norm being quite difficult. However, there are fanciers who do very well in this category and every season they are at the top of the national hierarchy. This year, the 1st place National Middle distance Fanciers Palmares was won by the team Simion Emil & Dumitran Stelian, from Bucharest, which won the 1st national place also for Middle distance palmares – pigeons category, followed by two other teams: Tudoran + Șițoiu (Vâlcea), on the 2nd place, and Fekete + Lucaciu (Sălaj), on the 3rd place.

Unlike the rules for pigeons categories, the norm of the Middle distance Fanciers Palmares category is made by achieving the “norm + norm” criterion. Fanciers competing for this category must complete the four races norm, with a distance between 285 and 630 km, for two consecutive seasons, the record meaning the cumulation of scores obtained in the two seasons. This forces them to perform very well in the fanciers’ rankings and, as will be seen below, the pigeon fanciers who manage to occupy a place on the national podium, have achieved this norm almost only with stages where they won the 1st place.

Simion Emil & Dumitran Stelian tandem wins a new national title for Middle distance Fanciers

The Simion Emil & Dumitran Stelian team won the title of “National Champion” in the Fanciers’ Middle distance category in the 2019 competition season, with a coefficient of 11.03 penalty points, after they managed to win the first place for fanciers in four middle distance races (a 372 km competition and three 378 km competitions). Thus, the two fanciers from the capital left, theoretically, with the first chance in the Middle distance Fanciers Palmares category. Although the 2020 season was a bit more difficult, the Simion Emil & Dumitran Stelian team managed to have a consistent performance at this category. With two races in which they won first place in fanciers (308 km / 153 pigeon fanciers and 385 km / 113 pigeon fanciers), one race in which they took second place in fanciers (354 km / 120 pigeon fanciers) and another race in which they ranked fifth (352 km / 124 pigeon fanciers), Simion Emil & Dumitran Stelian achieved the norm in with 53.36 penalty points. Cumulated, the two scores, from the 2019 and 2020 seasons, resulted in the best coefficient of 2020 Middle distance Fanciers Palmares (64.39 points), and the team Simion Emil & Dumitran Stelian won a new national trophy in the preferred category.

Another team, Tudoran + Șițoiu, ranks second

The 2nd place National in the Middle distance Fanciers Palmares category was also won by a team. This time it is the one formed by Mădălin Șițoiu and Cosmin Tudoran, members of the Vâlcea Racing pigeons Association, which we find several times in this year’s National Catalog. As we have mentioned on other occasions, the two pigeon fanciers from Vâlcea form, in reality, two teams: Șițoiu + Tudoran and Tudoran + Șițoiu. In both variants they managed to be on the national podium in several categories, such as Ace Speed Yearlings or Short distance Yearlings. In the Middle distance Fanciers Palmares category, for the Tudoran + Șițoiu team, the 2020 season was much better. In 2019, the Vâlcea team achieved the norm at Middle distance Fanciers with 40.95 points and ranked 19th National. On the other hand, this year, the benefits at Middle distance Fanciers were much better. They ranked three times in 1st place for fanciers and once in 4th place: 1/170 pigeon fanciers (324 km), 1/170 pigeon fanciers (390 km), 1/322 pigeon fanciers (391 km) and 4/129 pigeon fanciers (390 km). With these rankings they obtained a coefficient of 45.72 points and ranked 5th National Middle distance Fanciers. But, at Middle distance Fanciers Palmares, they occupy the 2nd National place, with a total score of 86.67 penalty points. “In the location where we compete under the name Tudoran + Șițoiu we had a group of 50 pigeons. The pigeons come from the crossing of several lines, such as Gaby Vandenabeele, Kees Bosua, Gommaire Verbruggen, Van de Pasch etc. We competed using widowhood, without breeding any young bird before the season.We separated them after they hatched for 10 days. During the season we used three types of food, from Vanrobaeys. After the competition, the pigeons received a diet food, then they were fed the 029 mixture from this company, and at the end of the week they received the Top Energy mixture. For the team, as a rule, we rely on about the same two or three pigeons. I want to make it clear that this is a special chapter for me, that’s why I’m very careful when it comes to the team. I rely, as I said, on two or three old birds, and the team is completed by the pigeons that I consider the most prepared for that stage or yearlings that are starting to have very good performances. Team pigeons do not receive special treatment or special motivation. All the flyers see their partners before and after the race. I noticed that good pigeons do not need over-motivation. On the contrary, sometimes you risk hurting them more “, mentioned Cosmin Tudoran.

Fekete + Lucaciu, wins a national trophy at Middle distance in 2020 as well

The Fekete + Lucaciu team, from Sălaj County, formed by the pigeon fanciers Robert Fekete and Florin Lucaciu, ranks 3rd. The two had a good evolution this season in the Fanciers category, also winning the 3rd place National Short distance Fanciers Palmares, although they compete only with a very small number of widows cocks. Last year, although they achieved the norm at Middle distance Fanciers with four races from the 1st place, they occupied the 11th National place, with 28.08 penalty points. This year they obtained three rankings on the first place and a ranking on the fourth place (1/43 pigeon fanciers, 1/53 pigeon fanciers, 1/36 pigeon fanciers and 4/110 pigeon fanciers), achieving the same norm with 70.11 penalty points and the norm Middle distance Palmares with 98.19 penalty points. “We only compete with cocks, whom we play using widowhood method. For 2020 we had 11 cocks in the flight group and we finished the season with six, everyone of them winning at least one trophy. Between races we do a 30 km training, and as food we use a local mixture, to which we sometimes add different small seeds. For the team, we rely on constant pigeons. If we are at the beginning of the season and we do not know who are the best, we put on the team those who performed better in training or in the previous race. Another criterion is the family from which the pigeons come. As we have a small number of pigeons in the flight group, we know them very well and it is not difficult to form a team “, explained Robert Fekete.

In conclusion, we can see that it is quite difficult to have a constant performance in the Middle distance Fanciers category and, especially, to get very good scores for two consecutive years. This can be seen very well from the evolution of the two teams on the second and third places, which in 2019 were on the 19th and 11th National places, but on the palmares they are on the podium.