Another newly established category, alongside Speed Ace, is the Middle distance Ace category, the norm being achieved by ranking seven races of the middle distance type, without a limit of kilometers, provided that at least four stages are centralized from the general or county rankings. Basically, the pigeon that approaches this category must be a very fast bird, extremely constant, but, at the same time, it must maintain its motivation and sports form during the entire competition season.

In this first edition of the Middle distance Ace Yearlings category, only 34 pigeons managed to achieve this norm, while in the As Middle distance Ace old birds we find 39 pigeons that can boast of having completed the norm. The national 1st place in the Yearlings category 2022 was won by the cock with the series 0441422-2021, a bird that won this category separately after completing the norm with 2,672 ranked kilometers and 150.83 penalty points. The happy owner of this wonderful pigeon is fancier Lucian Bercea, from Constanța, who told us that: “Behind 0441422-2021 there is a real family of champions. His father, the cock 1029922-2018, was the 3rd place in the Romanian Olympic team, category H, at the Oradea Olympics, and his grandfather, with the series 183129-2017, was the national champion of the Middle Distance Yearlings category in 2018. This trophy is a great satisfaction for me, considering the difficulty of the category, which is reflected in the low number of pigeons that managed to achieve this norm”.

Cosmin Dobre

The 2022 national vice-champion Middle distance Ace Yearlings is the young hen with the series 0599068-2021, who belongs to the team Stănescu + Dobre, formed by Cosmin Dobre and Sorin Stănescu from Bucharest. In the 7 ranked Middle distance stages, the hen accumulated 246.37 points, covering 2,694 kilometers. At the base of its origins are established pigeons from the famous champion lines of Gaston Van de Wouwer. “The hen showed a lot of motivation and constancy in the races of this category. Like the other pigeons in our lot, she was raced by the widow’s method. Although the flight route supported by us this season was a rather difficult route, she managed to cope with it successfully, bringing us a new national trophy”, said Cosmin Dobre.

Marius Fugaru – Costică Geacu – Alexandru Păuna

The third place of the category is completed, this season, by another fancier from Constanta. It is about Marius Fugaru, whose cock with the series 0403768-2021 managed to finish the norm with 2,713 ranked kilometers and 261.63 points, enough to propel its owner to the 3rd place of the national podium. “The team that competes under the name of Mariu Fugaru is made up of Marius Fugaru, Costică Geacu and Alexandru Păuna. The origins of our champion in the Middle distance ace Yearlings category are from pigeons of Gaby Vandenabeele, Freddy Vandenheede and Van Loon. This year we trained and competed pigeons using the widow’s method. This season was quite successful for us because, in addition to this national trophy obtained by the cock 0403768-2021, a result we are extremely happy about, we still have three more birds for the European Cup”, reports Marius Fugaru.

The “gold” and “bronze” from Old birds category went to Moldova

Costel Vicol

In the Middle distance Ace Old birds category, the national “gold” is claimed by the same cock 0909226-2020, of Costel Vicol, from Volovaț, Suceava county, a pigeon that, this season, also obtained a national champion title in the Middle Distance category old birds in the races that are part of this distance category, the fantastic cock of the fancier from Suceava proved to be unbeatable, completing the norm with 134.47 penalty points, ranking 2,629 kilometers. As origins, the pigeon is bred from birds purchased from Rainer Puttmann’s loft, along the lines of «Hurricane 51» and «Super Dohmen 100».

The team of Alexandru Tănase & Stroe Tudorel, from Constanța, obtains the title of national vice-champion of the Middle distance Ace Old birds category, through their strong cock with the series 0258035-2020. He finished the norm with a score of 152.54 points and 2,692 ranked kilometers in the required seven stages. “We have been playing in this formula for two years and we are happy with the results of this pigeon, which ranked 2nd national for this category, he was also 1st place Provincial Middle distance Old birds, 1st place Provincial Middle distance Ace, 1st place County Middle distance old birds and 1st place Middle distance Ace old birds. He comes from an exceptional family, his father, the cock with the series 2618-335 DV 2017, who was purchased by Tudorel Stroe from the Black Sea pigeon One race Loft, being the father of three more pigeons that reached the national podium in the children’s championship , where they were competed by Iulian Stroe.

Alexandru Tănase

His mother is hen 387055-2013, blood pigeon Gabi Vandenabeele. In turn, she proved to be a good breeder, her descendants obtaining leading places, such as 1st place in the County Long distance Old birds, 1st place in the County Marathon Old birds (contested by the Caranică & Tănase team), at the same time she is the mother and grandmother of several top pigeons 10, on different OLRs. This hen 387055-2013 is a sister to «Big Mama» (dam of «Princes Warrior» 3603-2021, 1st place Ace, 2nd place OLR final Europa Master 2021, sold on PIPA for €13,200). I raced the pigeons through the widow system, from the first to the last stage. For us, this season was a difficult one, with many losses and because of this, towards the end of the championship, a small number of pigeons were engaged in the stages, most of the participants engaging only the pigeons with a chance to obtain good performance. However, when you reach the national podium, you forget everything you’ve been through and you can only be proud of the trophy you won”, Alexandru Tănase revealed to us.

On the third position of the national podium in this category climbs another team, this time from Suceava. It is about Gagea Ionuț and Ionela, whose hen, 0220081-2020, managed to rank in the seven stages a number of 2,833 kilometers and obtain 213.12 points. “The hen 220081-2020 is bred from two OLR pigeons, her father being 100% David W. Clausing (inbred to ‘Never say die’) and the mother being purchased directly from the renowned German breeder Karl-Heinz Wichert, being a good sister with two of his best flying hens.

220081-2020 – Ionuț Gagea și Ionela

The 220081-2020 champion showed her value since the first year when she managed to get the 3rd place in the county in the Allround Yearlings category. This trophy was a real surprise for me, as I never thought that I would be able to beat the established Middle distance Fanciers from my county, let alone those from the country. Ranking 7 Middle distance stages is not that easy, and in the Ace categories there is no room for mistakes. My focus was on the National Ace Fanciers category, and this forced me to be “careful” at all stages of the flight plan. From the moment the marathons started, my batch was divided into two: on the one hand, ten birds that I competed in the Middle distance and Long-distance stages, and the bulk of the batch, i.e. 65 pigeons, went to the marathon and extremely”, said Ionuț Gagea.