By far the most demanding for our pigeons, Extreme Marathon category, especially in terms of the very long distances they have to fly to return home, but also because, often, the pigeons are forced to spend the night in various places, the Extreme Marathon is also one of the categories preferred by Romanian fanciers. It is therefore not surprising that the fight for a place on the national podiums is often fierce, whether we are talking about yearlings, old birds or fanciers.

Team Măgirescu Ojog Dorneanu

This season, however, we face an unprecedented situation regarding the national podium of the Extreme Yearlings category, where all three leading pigeons come from the same loft, a truly unique performance if we consider the aerial distances flown necessary to achieve this norm. Not as surprising is the fact that the three yearlings belong to the famous team Măgirescu, Ojorg + Dorneanu, from Bacău, a trio used to national podiums. Thus, the cock with the series 0207598-2021 climbs to the 1st national place, with a total of 2.69 penalty points and 2,328 ranked kilometers. He is followed by the hen with the series 0207720-2021, with a total of 5.24 penalty points achieved in the 2,328 kilometers ranked, while the third place is awarded by the hen with the series 0207647-2021, who recorded this norm with 7.52 penalty points and 2,328 ranked kilometers. “In the middle of the season, after the first two stages of the Marathon, we noticed that there were too many young arrivals. Then I had the inspiration to send half of the batch of yearlings to the national stages, respectively Madona and Birzai. That was our winning draw, plus the undeniable value of the birds we own. For the Extreme Marathon stages I started with a batch of 45 yearlings. The birds were played using natural method, having 10-12-day-old eggs in the first stage of Marathon, and 7-8-day-old chicks in the first stage of Extreme. After the night arrivals that we recorded, as well as the group arrivals in the morning of the second day of the competition, some exceptional yearlings managed to stand out, occupying all three places of the national podium in the Extreme Yearlings category. The cock series 0207598-2021 is the son of «DE255», good brother to the famous «DE004», «DE005», «DE036» and cousin to «Power Night», who was 1 World Best Pigeons Super Marathon 2021. Cousin to «Super Velden Junior”, who took the 1st place in the 2020 Marathon Grand Prix, with “Fratelo Power”, which took the 2nd place in the 2022 Maraton Ace 3 years Palmares, and with “DE688”, which this year took the 3rd place in the Marathon Ace Yearlings. Pigeon 0207598-2021 has “DE249″ as its mother, 1st place Moldova Province Marathon 3 years Palmares in 2019.
The 2nd national place Extreme Yearlings was occupied by the hen 0207720-2021, through two excellent arrivals in the first hours of the second day of the competition at both Extreme stages. She is the granddaughter of four top birds from our loft: «Super Velden Junior», «Triple Champion», «De197», a pigeon that won the 8th place in the national Grand Prix 2020, and «De127», the 8th place in the Ace Marathon 2020. Hen who took the 3rd national place Extreme Yearlings, with the series 0207647-2021, is the daughter of «Power Night Son», and her mother is «Luna», who took the 1st place Tartu 2020. The four fabulous yearlings, who this year – they brought four national trophies, they will be competing in the next season as well, in the hope that they will also achieve a good record, but also to earn a place in the home team”, said Daniel Măgirescu.

Moldavian fanciers had no competition for Old birds Category

Radu Prigoreanu

In the national ranking of the Extremely Old birds category, Radu Prigoreanu, from Hârlău town, Botoşani county, won with the hen with the series 0005553-2019. To win the category, the hen needed a score of 1.13 penalty points in the 2,125 ranked kilometers. “The hen, named “Chery”, with the series 5553-2019, brought me great joy with this title of national champion in the Extremely Old birds category. She is the granddaughter of two very good flying pigeons in my loft namely «885-2014», who was national runner-up Maraton Palmares and 3rd place national Maraton Ace Palmares, and the cock named «Zorro», with series 824 -2014, who achieved the 13th national place in the Maraton Ace Palmares category. Another basic pigeon in the origins of the champion is her great-grandmother, «Elizabeth», with the series 806-2014, who took the 3rd place in the national Marathon Palmares 3 years and the 4th place in the national Marathon Yearlings, being also a sister to «Zorro» and a cousin to « 885-2014″. I want to mention that her mother is the hen with the series 8876-2018, which in 2020 was the 8th Berlin National, out of about 1,800 pigeons. “Chery”, in addition to this year’s result, has also in 2020, at the age of one year, the 8th national place in the Grand Prix Yearlings category with two stages of over 1,000 kilometers. At the age of two, he finished three Marathon stages, totaling seven Marathon stages in 3 years of competition, six of which are over 1,000 kilometers, achieving 141 penalty points in the 3-year-old Extreme Marathon category. She competed in the first stage of the Extreme Marathon as a widow, and in the second stage she was played as a natural”, explained Radu Prigoreanu.

101044-2020 Petru Schirod

The national vice-champion of the Extreme old birds category is the hen with the series 0101044-2020, a pigeon belonging to Petru Schirod, from Vicovu De Sus locality, Suceava county, with a score of 1.62 penalty points in the 1,949 ranked kilometers. “The year 2022 brought me immense joy, being the first year in which I manage, together with my father, Ilie Schirod, to climb the national podium. This was made possible by the hen with the series 101044-2020, which arrived on the first day at both stages. The first Extreme stage was the Code stage, 970 aerial kilometers, where he achieved 10th place out of 9,875 pigeons, and the last stage – Birzai Național, where he ranked 7th out of 11,729 pigeons. She was engaged in four Marathon stages, of which three Extreme stages, ranking them all. She was played all season naturally, in a nest position with eggs, only at Birzai Național being employed on a 6-7 day old chick. The hen’s father is the original Petrică Țugui, a very good fancier, he being the father of three top hens in my breeding loft, and her mother is bred by me, from two original Etienne Meirlaen pigeons, who is also my mentor in pigeon fancier. This hen by Etienne Meirlaen is the mother of both champions I own. Since 2014, we have chosen to compete only in the Marathon stages. In the first year I achieved the first county top 10 result. In the years 2019 and 2020 we narrowly missed the national podium, with the hen with the series 4022002-2018, good sister to 101044-2020, occupying national 4th place twice. This year we started the season with a batch of 77 pigeons, 28 old birds and 49 yearlings. Yearlings are engaged in three stages of the Marathon. In the end, this season we managed to get a very precious trophy, which shows us that we are on the right track, thanks to the valuable pigeons from the loft”, reveals Petru Schirod.

Lungoci Mihai and Matei

The Lungoci team Mihai and Matei, formed by Mihai (father) and Matei (son), from Horodnic de Sus locality, Suceava county, climbs to the third step of the national podium of the Extreme Old birds category, thanks to the hen with the series 0791783-2019, pigeon that achieved this norm with a total of 2.06 penalty points and 2,022 ranked air kilometers. “We start the season with about 120 pigeons, which we play only by the widow’s method. We compete both sexes in all categories, and at the end of the season only pigeons that are consistent and those that have at least two or three top finishes at certain stages will remain in the loft. We do not play the yearlings in the Marathon races, and if at the age of two years a pigeon is not good in any category, we remove it from the lot. With us, the selection is done only by the basket and we emphasize only the pigeons that last until the last stages. The hen with the series 791783-2019, winner of the 3rd place national Extreme Marathon, has 12 rankings this season, of which four rankings are in the Marathon stages. This super hen also contributed to winning the “Colonel Xenofon Roman” trophy, bringing us good points in the Fanciers category as well, having arrivals in the first 10 pigeons per release even in the Speed and Middle distance stages. In the Extreme category, she ranked 6th out of 9,872 pigeons participating in the Marathon Code stage and 21st out of 14,484 pigeons in the Madona National stage, arriving home each time on the first day of the competition. This year he achieved the norm in the Speed, Extreme and As Extreme Marathon categories, where he ranks 12th nationally. It is based on Dinu Moise, Rauw-Sablon and Freialdenhofen pigeons. We are very happy with this result, taking into account the competition we have in our area”, said Mihai Lungoci.

“To be in the top of the Fanciers category you need a very valuable batch and a lot of inspiration”

Cristian Lucan

In the Extreme Fanciers category, the top prize is claimed by Cristian Lucan, from Sfântu Ilie, Suceava county, with a total of 92.50 penalty points. “I started flying pigeons in 2012. From 2014 to 2018, for 5 consecutive years, I had pigeons on the national podium in different categories: Middle distance, Long distance, Allround and Marathon. In 2019 I decided to give up the Middle Distance, Allround and Long Distance pigeons and to compete only in the Marathon and Extreme Marathon. I brought more Marathon pigeons, in addition to the few I already had. From 2019 there was a two-year break, during which I selected the reproduced pigeons. Last year, the results started to appear at the county level, and this year again at the national level, with two first place trophies. Every year, they start the competition season with 40 pigeons. My loft is small and this is the reason why the selection is very hard. At the end of the season only a few pigeons remain, which have proven something. The pigeons are raced by the natural method, a method that I consider more complicated than the widow’s method in that it requires more time and patience on the part of the fancier, but which, I think, lends itself better to Marathon flights. One of the pigeons that helped me to get the 1st place in the National Extreme Marathon Fanciers is 948894-2020 «Elektra», which scored in the stages Code (1,008 kilometers and 0.57 penalty points), Madona National (1,065 kilometers and 1.52 points penalty). The hen is bred from a cock having Mădălin Digulescu origins(100% Cobzaru Daniel) and a hen from my breeding loft, which is also the mother of 662222-2013, which took 3rd place in the National Marathon Yearlings 2014. Another pigeon that stood out at team this season is the hen with the series 948896-2020 – «Blanka», which at Madona National (1,065 kilometers) obtained 2.55 penalty points, and at Birzai National (1,016 kilometers) accumulated 5.79 points. It is bred from two imported pigeons and is a combination of 50% Janssens-Hausoul and 50% A.P. Overwater. For me, this title is one of the most important national titles won so far”, revealed Cristian Lucan.

Săndel Stoian

Săndel Stoian, from Negrilești, Galați county, is on the 2nd national place, with a score of 104.16 penalty points. “This season was”attacked” by me with a batch of 120 pigeons, which I competed using semi-widowhood category. Up to the first stage of the Long Distance, they were prepared by the natural method, and after that the pigeons were passed to the widowhood. My pigeons originate from a strong Marathon family, most of them being birds from Daniel Cobzaru, which come from champion lines, such as «Olimpica», «The Dutchman» or «171118», and some infusions on Van Tuyl pigeons, brought by to the team of Măgirescu, Ojog+ Dorneanu, Antoon Schultz and Noel Peiren. The pigeons who helped me a lot in obtaining this important national trophy are: 0880079-2020 (nephew «Olimpica»), 088073-2020 (nephew «Olimpica»), 0420003-2018, 0880039-2020 and 0960100-2019 (nephew « Olympic”). These special birds managed to bring the team, at the Marathon Tribonys stage, the fourth place, with 60.62 penalty points, out of 315 participating fanciers. At the Medynai National stage, they won 2nd place in Fanciers, with 22.63 penalty points, out of 322 fanciers, and in Vilnius National also 2nd place in Fanciers, with a total of 20.91 points, out of 616 participating”, revealed Săndel Stoian.

Team Gagea Ionuț and Ionela

The Extreme Fanciers national podium is completed by the Suceava team Gagea Ionel and Ionela, with 111.84 penalty points. “I am extremely happy with this performance, especially if we take into account the very high degree of difficulty of the Fanciers category, where, to be in the top, you need a very valuable batch and a lot of inspiration. Fortunately, in the past season, I can say that these two things came together perfectly, benefiting both from a homogeneous, healthy and well-motivated team, but also from the inspiration to put the fit ones in the team. It should be mentioned that, after the first Extreme race, Code (distance of 1,006 kilometers), I occupied the 26th place overall, out of 572 fanciers, with 84.72 points, and I did not hope to reach the national top of fanciers. But the pigeons proved their value and the results obtained at Madona National (1,062 kilometers), where we took 2nd place in the general rankings, out of 999 fanciers, with 8.71 points, and Birzai National (1,013 kilometers), where we obtained 3rd place in zone 1, out of 508 fanciers, with 28.81 points, propelled me to the national top. The flying method I practiced was the double widowhood, flying with both hens and coks, but I can’t say I had a clear rule of basketing from start to finish. Sometimes they saw each other after training, sometimes not. I let them see each other depending on how “bored” I felt they are at that moment. I went all the way with this method and it turned out to be a winner. About the pigeons that helped me get this beautiful trophy, I can say that they are the fruit of my 10 years of work and valuable purchases made together with my brother from the most established fanciers in Europe. The 2022 Marathon and Extreme Marathon performers in my loft are descendants (grandsons) of champions such as: «Olimpic Monar» (Etienne Meirlaen), «Invictus» (Hugo Batenburg), «Blue Ace» (Hugo Batenburg), «Hestia & Fury » (Frank Zwiers), «Karina» (W. Handerek), «Il Fenomeno» (Elisei Eacobuță) or «Fulga» (Gagea Ionuț)”, Ionuț Gagea said.