Starting with the 2022 season, in the UFCR National Sports Regulations, approved by the National Conference on 03-20-2022, new rules have appeared in certain distance categories. One of them is the Ace Speed category, the norm of which is made of a number of eight Speed stages, provided that at least five stages are centralized from the general or county rankings, with the mention that in a competitive season they can be organized maximum eight Speed stages. More precisely, in order to fulfill this norm, the pigeon has to participate and rank in all the Speed stages that can be organized in a season, and this condition makes the norm much more difficult to fulfill. But as nothing is impossible, certain pigeons managed to keep their sports form and the constancy of the rankings at this type of stages, managing, in the end, to complete the norm in this category as well.

Daniel Ionita

An example is Daniel Ioniță, from the town of Cugir, Alba county, who owns two extremely valuable birds, which, at the end of this season, brought him the titles of national champion and vice-champion in the Ace Speed Yearlings category. The two champions are the cocks with the series 0772761-2021 and 0772778-2021. These super pigeons covered a total of 1,443 kilometers in the eight Speed stages and obtained 63.47 penalty points and 82.57 points, respectively. All these cocks are also the main performers for Daniel Ioniță winning the 3rd place in the national Fanciers Speed category. “The cock champion in the Yearlings Ace Speed category is an exceptional pigeon. His father is a cock with Herbots blood, from Florin Doștentian, and his mother is a hen from Leo Heremans. I say exceptional because there are many quality fliers in his family. His father’s brother even placed in the Long Distance Young birds stage, Vienna, and at the age of one year he took the provincial 1st place in the Long Distance category. Also, the champion 0772761-2021 has two more cousins, good flyers, from the father’s side, in the Marius Doroc loft, one managing to get three first places on the stage, and the other three 1st places and one 2nd place on the stage. The maternal sister of the champion, competed in Germany, won two first places at the distances of 550 and 620 kilometers for the Romanian pigeon fancier Ciprian Barbur. The national vice-champion of the Ace Speed Yearlings category is bred from a cock from Dorin Savu, and his mother is from the loft of Laurentiu Pinca, being a half-breed with one of his best flyers, on the Kromwel Poelman line. The pigeons were played widowed, and we started the season with a number of 64 travelers and ended the flights with 24. This season was an extremely difficult one, with many losses, even from the Speed stages when, at one stage of 200 kilometers, I lost 18 pigeons. However, I achieved these beautiful results and I am very proud of my birds, which, in my opinion, fully deserve their trophies”, said Daniel Ioniţă.

Haidu B + Robaş M team

The Haidu B + Robaş M team, a team formed by pigeon fans Balazs Haidu, Mircea Robaș and Samuel Nagy, from the town of Seini, Satu-Mare county, climbs to the third step of the national podium of the Ace Speed Yearlings category, with the cock series 0147784-2021. In order to obtain this norm, implicitly this trophy, the young pigeon achieved 100.11 penalty points in the 1,916 kilometers traveled within the 8 stages. “The family from which our champion 0147784-2021 comes is extremely strong. His father, named “Harold”, comes from the famous breeder Ferenc Pinter. The father of “Harold” is “Harvard”, Zsolt Pinter’s Olympic pigeon. The grandfather of «Harold» is «Nieuwe Olympiade», from Leo Heremans, which was bought by Eijerkamp. “Harold’s” sister is “Lotte”, an Olympic pigeon, and another brother of his, “Harvard Junior”, is also an Olympic pigeon. The mother of our champion is a Dirck v.d. bloodline product. Bulk, purchased by Ferenc Pinter from Huub Hermans. Half brother to champion dam 0147784-2021 is double national champion in Hungary in Speed and G category. Our flight lot this season consisted of 60 pigeons and we race both sexes. This trophy is a dream come true for us, after a very difficult year, with many sleepless nights. But without work we could not achieve such results, especially when we have direct opponents Adrian Mărculescu and the team Robaş G + Bucaciuc D”, said Haidu Balazs.

Exceptional season for Suceava’s Marius Viorel Airinei

Viorel Airinei

In addition to the title of national champion of the 2022 Speed Fanciers category and that of national vice-champion in the Speed old birds category, Marius Viorel Airinei, from the town of Grămești, Suceava county, also managed to obtain the title of national champion in the Ace Speed Old birds category, with the series cock 0799619-2020, which ended this norm with 989 ranked kilometers and a total of 75.56 penalty points. This champion is bred from two pigeons from the Bizu and Bizu Jr breeding, being a nest brother with the cock 0799620-2020, who this season ranks 6th nationally in the Speed Old birds category and a maternal brother with the cock series 0799626-2020, 5th national place Speed Old birds 2022, and with the pigeon series 0799626-2020, which is on the 7th national Ace Speed Old birds 2022. The father of 0799619-2020 is a product of two exceptional flyers, who in their career had many top rankings, and his mother is a blood hen on the line of Jan Hooymans’ famous «Harry». “I have been racing pigeons since 2007. My birds are competing in widowhood, both cocks and hens. The 2022 season was an excellent one. I managed no less than eight norms in the national top 10 in the Speed categories. These achievements represent a beautiful dream for me”, said Marius Viorel Airinei.

Miklos Szekely

The silver and bronze medals of the Ace Speed Old birds category go, this season, in Alba county, to Miklos Szekely, from the town of Blaj. The national No. 2 cock has the series 0770021-2019, which earned 91.39 penalty points in the 1,535 ranked kilometers. The hen series 0770035-2019 climbed to the 3rd national place, with a total of 98.63 points and 1,535 ranked kilometers. “The pigeon 0770021-2019, called “Amazon”, is a very intelligent, hardworking, constant and team pigeon. On the father’s side it comes from a Dutch pigeon, which has three names at its base, three world-class specimens: «Ché» of Eijerkamp, «Harry» of Jan Hooymans and «Kleine Dirk» of Gerard Koopman. His mother is a sister to several top provincial and national fliers in my loft. She is a combination of Romulus Matei and Adrian Crăciunescu (based on pigeons Koopman, Dirk van Dyck, granddaughter «706», national and Olympic champion pigeon). These pigeons are a family of pigeons with a very strong character. “Amazon” managed to stand out in the loft as a youngster, from all points of view. At one year old he was the 1st provincial Speed Yearlings, at the age of 2 he took the 2nd provincial Senior Palmares Speed, and in 2022 he climbed the provincial and national podium several times. In his track record, he registers five first places per stage. The hen 0770035-2019, which I named «M 35», is also part of the category of team specimens. Her father is an original cock from Belgium, obtained from a related breeding of pigeons with 1st place on races and Ace pigeons, very fast pigeons, competed over time only on short distances, maximum 200 aerial kilometers.

The mother of the hen is from her own breeding loft, having several 1st places in her career and is the granddaughter of the cock «Gentleman» of Matei Romulus, a fantastic pigeon, who was seven times 1st places in his career. The mother of the runner-up «M 35» is a copy that inherits and transmits all the characters and characteristics of my pigeons, her genetic base is found in all the good flying pigeons in my loft. “M 35″ is one of the specimens obtained by crossing with imported pigeons, which managed to stand out at an acceptable level. She is a sister of 770036-2019, this being provincial champion in the category Speed Ace Old birds in 2021 and national vice-champion in the category Speed, 3 years palmares. The method used is widowhood with both sexes. The number of the lot fluctuates from year to year between 45-75 pigeons. The 2022 season was quite a difficult one, like all the seasons in the past years. These difficulties are caused by the relief and the exaggerated number of predators. For me, any trophy represents a reward for the work of the entire pigeon fancier year”, stated Miklos Szekely.