The 2021 season is no exception to the amazing results achieved with the youngsters competing in the marathon. Even if we identify a setback compared to previous years, if we can say that about the norms made by youngters in these categories, we can not fail to notice the performance of the team Pătruți & Onița, from the Caras Severin Association, made in the Grand Prix Marathon category. The two have four youngsters with this norm, achieved on the most difficult flight route and with the hardest marathon race of the 2021 season.

The Pătruți & Onița team is made up of pigeon fanciers Valentin Onița and Adorian Pătruți, and their loft is located on the border of Timiș and Caraș-Severin counties, in Jamu Mare locality. The two pigeon fanciers started collaborating in 2019, and in the 2021 season they managed to win the first national trophies in the list.

15 young cocks selected for the marathon stages

Of the more than 200 youngsters bred in 2021, the Pătruți & Onița team decided that some of them should be engaged in the same stages with the old birds, without using the dark method. Thus, the selected youngsters were introduced to the old birds compartment and participated in the first speed stage and the first middle distance one. But, an illness attacked the whole group of young people and caused them to withdraw from the championship. After a recovery period, the youngsters were engaged for a long-distance competition. They passed this stage and a group of 15 cocks was prepared for the Prague National stage, which for the team had a distance of 812 km. “We selected some of the youngsters reproduced in the first series to compete with the adults, but the plan was not to reach the marathon with them. However, this is the first year we have tried this option. The chicks were not kept in the dark or competed by any particular method. I put them in the compartment of the old birds and there they occupied their boxes, they mated and some young hens even laid eggs. They participated for a speed, a middle distance race, after which they got Rotavirus. We had to stop, but they recovered and engaged them at a later stage. However, I saw that the hens are very affected, maybe because they also laid eggs and, if I saw that they are doing quite well, I chose a group of 15 cocks to engage them at the Prague National stage “, said Valentin Onița. Although it was not an easy competition at all, the young cocks performed very well. The first to arrive, the youngsters that occupies the first place, RO-21-0172629, arrived on the first day, at 17:48:50, and took the 26th place on the entire launch against 2,130 pigeons. In total, the first day of the competition ended with three pigeons arriving. Four more of them arrived and filed the next day.

Engaged to National Berlin race

Even if it represented a remarkable performance alone, the rank of the Prague National stage determined the team to engage its youngsters at the Berlin National 2021 competition (1,074 km). Unfortunately, we all know how difficult this race was and how many losses it caused. But, four of the 10 youngsters engeged by the Pătruți & Onița team managed to rank, no matter how unbelievable it may seem. Moreover, the first arrival from Prague National was the first arrival among the youngsters in Berlin, occupying the 109th place in the county, out of 614 engaged pigeons, and 730 for the whole competition, out of 3,115 pigeons. Thus, he accumulated a coefficient of 193.45 penalty points, with which he would have occupied an honorable place as a yarling, and even for an old bird. “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we also had to try the Berlin National stage. The joy is very great, especially since the youngsters competed naturally “, added Valentin Onița.
Besides to the first place youngster, the team will compete in the 2022 season with the other three pigeons, a good opportunity to test many of the theories about how tough or not the youngsters should compete.