Another pigeon who had a great performance this season is the hen with the series 2023718-2021 who, with a score of 12.01 points, awarded her 4th national Club Gold. She belongs to the team from Prahova county, Paraschiv Justin + Toma Valentin, from Cireșanu. “I have been competing with racing pigeons for 38 years. I flew in the past under the name Valentin Toma. Being always away from the country, I had help from my father, but due to health problems he was no longer able to help me with feeding and training the pigeons. For these reasons, in 2015 I decided to give up to my loft. Hearing this, Justin Paraschiv offered me to continue flying from his loft, providing me with everything necessary to continue practicing this wonderful sport. So if it wasn’t for him, from that point on I wouldn’t have been able to compete. I live abroad, and pigeon fanciing I do, most of the time, by phone and watching the live cameras that are installed in the loft. However, the one who does all the work and makes everything available is my friend Justin, whom I want to thank from the bottom of my heart for everything he has done and is doing for the sake of pigeonholing and our friendship”, Valentin Toma testified. As for the hen that prevailed in the Gold competition, she was bred in their loft in Prahova and played only using widowhood method. “The winner of the Gold prize was bred in our loft, her father being a cock brought from my good friend, Alexandru Cazacu, and her mother is also bred in our loft, from two pigeons that come from the Cosmin Olteanu lofts. Method of play is the widowhood with both partners. We pair the pigeons around March 25th, let them lay a series of eggs, and on April 15th we separate them and start training. This year, the first training was from the distance of 80 air kilometers. We do around 5-6 practices at this distance, then we train them with the club pigeons transporter. Between the races, every week, we take them with our personal car to a training session, also from a distance of 80 kilometers”, detailed Valentin Toma.

“We recommend all colleagues to purchase some Gold rings”

As a recent winner of the Gold Club, Valentin Toma advises all his colleagues to purchase Gold rings, considering that this competition is fair and transparent, and the prizes are worth it. “As new winners of a Gold award at national level, we have nothing but praise for the establishment of this competition which is very fair and transparent, and we firmly believe that it will continue to be so from now on. For this we have to thank the management for their work and struggle to have such contests. We buy ten Gold rings every year, and we will definitely do so from now on. We recommend all colleagues, especially those who engage yearlings in the long distance stages, to get a few gold rings, because every pigeon fancier has the chance to win a prize whose value is very gratifying”, stated Toma, who would like, however, that the 10 national prizes be awarded to the first ten pigeons in the catalogue, regardless of which Province they belong to. Moreover, the fancier appreciates that the Romanian pigeon sport is on the right track, and the merits also go to the current management team of UNCR. “Racing pigeons sport in Romania is on the rise, thanks to Marius Tunduc and the team he has. I am referring here especially to competitions, namely to the way of basketing, rankings or the safety of competitions. As a conclusion: total transparency. Personally, I want to end the discussions between the unions and especially between the people who are part of them. I would like to be able to fly a batch of pigeons at the U.C.P.R. and another lot at U.N.C.R. – Columba, without being forced to choose to compete in only one of them”, said Valentin Toma.