The Racing Pigeons Championship in Romania is structured by distance categories, starting with the short distances, from 95-100 km, and reaching up to over 1200 airline km. Depending on the distance the competitions have, every category is called very suggestive: short distance (5 races between 95 and 420 km), middle distance (4 races between 285 and 630 km), long distance (3 races over 475 km), and extreme long distance (races with distances over 760 km).

The marathon (extreme long distance) races are set in the second part of the competitional season and are the most beloved by Romanian fanciers. The National Federation of Pigeon Fanciers in Romania (FNCPR) organizes four marathon races every competing season. Two of these four are organized by each county association, usually only with its affiliated members and coincide with the first and last marathon races of the season. The next two extreme long distance races are the most important ones in the flight plan and have the name of “National Races”. They usually bring together the pigeon fanciers from all the associations of a province, which makes a national marathon competition to have several thousands of pigeons at the start line. With these races, the romanian fanciers can fulfill three norms: National Extreme Long Distance norm (two races over 760 km, summing at least 1600 km), Marathon Grand Prix (two races over 760 km, totaling at least 1600 km; the norm is realized only from national races), and National Ace Extreme Long Distance (three races over 760 km, totaling at least 2400 km). The three norms are also divided into two sections: the one for old birds and the section for young pigeons (yearlings). The season that just passed was an explosive one regarding the extreme long distance races. Record after record were established, whether we are talking about the number of fanciers participating and pigeons for each race, or the results achieved in the competitions. To give just two examples, this year we had the highest number of pigeons registered for a single race in our country, but also the best score (lowest penalty score) by a Romanian pigeon in two races of extreme long distance. Firstly we talk about the National Madona Competition (1000-1200 km), organized by the Association of Suceava County. The race took place on July 13, and the launch was made from the town of Madona, Lithuania. It was a contest attended by no less than 19,091 pigeons, registered by 1018 fanciers, from 10 counties of Moldova.
Secondly, we must remember the performance achieved by the fancier Elisei Eacobuță from Bacău. His hen, known from now on as “Queen Madona”, managed to win two marathon races, setting the lowest penalty score in Romania’s history for the National Extreme Long Distance norm: 0, 31 points. Equally important was the Izium National competition (Ukraine: 800-1200 km), organized by the association “Ioan-Gelu Gătejescu” from Dolj county, a stage in which 9784 pigeons and 1112 fanciers from 18 counties participated.

With the help of these statistics we can figure out how much the marathon races are appreciated by the Romanian fanciers. Most of them call it “Queen category”, which is why they pay great attention to it. In our country the competition at the marathon races became a fierce one, so every good result at a extreme long distance contest must be considered a performance for any Romanian fancier.