National Regulation of the National Federation of Pigeon Fanciers in Romania (FNCPR) specifies the accomplishment of several norms for short distances. From these, among the most important ones are National Short Distance and National Middle Distance categories, that are realized by participating in competitions with distances between 95 and 630 km.
Each county association has 12 weekends available to plan short distance and middle distance competition, and the freedom to choose the distance of each race and the category of which it is a part. In some cases, short distance races have a distance that allows them to count for both categories. Depending on the distance, the types of competition are divided as following: short distance (95-315 km), short distance – middle distance (285-420 km), middle distance (380-630 km), and middle distance-long distance (475-630 km). From these categories of races, the ones that falls for short distance and middle distance can be centralized to meet the norm for National Short Distance, and short distance – middle distance, middle distance and middle distance – long distance can be selected to meet National Middle Distance norm. For National Short Distance category, the norm is achieved by cumulating the score from at least five races, whose distance falls within the range of 95-420 km. Totally, the races selected for the norm must have a minimum of 750 km per season, and the rankings from which the races are taken must contain at least 250 pigeons and 20 fanciers, with 20 active recording time systems. Unlike the short distance category, the norm for National Middle Distance is realised by the total sum of the score from four races, with a distance between 285 and 630 km. Minimum number of km resulting by cumulating the distances of the four races selected for the norm must be at least 1400 km. Similar to National Short Distance, the nominated stages rankings must have at least 250 pigeons and 20 fanciers with 20 active recording time systems. For the two distance categories, romanian fanciers have the possibility to meet also Palmares. National Short Distance Palmares or National Middle Distance Palmares represents the fulfillment of the requirements for the achievement of the norm in two consecutive seasons. From these, at least one of the races must be nominated from ranked races in the previous season of fulfilling the palmares. Also, National Short Distance and National Middle Distance categories are centralised differentiated by age categories (old birds, yearlings and young birds).
In Romania, short distance and middle distance races are truly spectacular. The large number of pigeons participating, especially for the races scheduled at the beginning of the season, and also the short duration of the ranking time makes them extremely attractive. With every season passed, romanian fanciers manage to obtain fewer and fewer penalty points, which reflects a very high level of competition. For example, one of the most spectacular short distance races of the 2019 season was organized by Prahova County. It had a distance of 200-250 km and a number of 17,401 pigeons.