It’s been several seasons in a row since Romanian pigeon fanciers, especially those from Moldova or the West, have managed to obtain several Marathon young birds norms. The 2021 season is no exception, only this time the sections dedicated to young birds are much poorer. If in 2020 we even had couple of norms for Marathon ace young birds, in 2021 there were only 4 norms at the Marathon Grand Prix and only one for the Marathon category. We discuss the last one in today’s material.

There is no question that the norms made in the Marathon categories with young birds of only a few months old are real performances and prove every time the abilities of these birds that we are constantly discovering. Last year, Gheorghe Balica from Bacău, the pigeon fancier who achieved the only norm at the Marathon young birds, also discovered such a “star” bird.

Engaged for two stages of Vilnius, with rankings, at only 5 months old

Gheorghe Balica is a pigeon fancier who lives in Buhuși, Bacău County, and has been competing for many years, but with significant interruptions. However, in the last three or four seasons he managed to compete constantly, and this year he tried his luck at the marathon stages, including young birds. For those who would have expected him to have slaughtered a whole batch of youngsters, we specify that Gheorghe Balica engaged only two in these competitions. One of them, who later turned out to be a hen, ranked both marathon competitions in which she was engaged and achieved the only norm in the country for Marathon youngsters in 2021. There were two stages in Vilnius (946 and 915 km), from who arrived every time the next day. “For various reasons I did not manage to compete for a long time, I kept interrupting. It’s been three or four years since I’ve been competing, but with a few pigeons. This year I also tried my luck with the young birds in the marathon. I only prepared two of them, which hatched out in March. In order to prepare them, I did a lot of short training stages with them, I engaged them for a short distance race, for the long distance and then at the two marathon races. I want to tell you that both marathon races were far from being easy. In any case, the marathon stages are a big challenge for the young birds, but last year’s two Vilnius competitions were very difficult for the other pigeons as well. I remember that at one of these competitions it was raining heavily when the pigeons arrived. This hen arrived home every time the second day, but at the loft level, the first marathon was the third, and the second marathon was the second. I think it’s not a small thing at all “, stated Gheorghe Balica (right photo).

He is trying to build his own pigeons family

Above, we said that Gheorghe Balica keeps and competes a small number of pigeons. The 2021 season started with only 22 fliers, and for breeding it had only three basic pigeons. However, he did not reach this numerical chance, but after competing and being convinced that the only pigeons that survive in his loft are part of the same family, which, incidentally, produced this very good pigeon. “My current pigeons come from Ciprian Coșerariu, who has Kipp and sons pigeons as origins, combined with Daniel Cosma pigeons. I can say that I have a modest loft, with few pigeons, but these are the ones that have survived. I had quite a few pigeons with beautifully written pedigrees, with origins considered very good, but they didn’t work. They just got lost. They were the only ones who remained, because even in adulthood, all those who remained are related to the hen who achieved the norm for Marathon youngsters. I will continue to rely on them to form a family “, added Gheorghe Balica.
Although not necessarily relevant, in the end we add that in the first stage of Vilnius Gheorghe Balica’s youngster, which has the series RO-21-0224401, occupies the 1500th place out of 16,463 pigeons, and for the second stage it ranked the 487th place out of 4,223 pigeons.