Incendiary weekend for Romanian fanciers: 17 marathon races

There is no doubt that most of the Romanian pigeon fanciers are great lovers of the Marathon. Thus, for them the 2024 season is just beginning, because this weekend is the first in which Marathon races will take place. The very number of marathon stages that will take place this weekend, no less than 17, shows how much the Romanian pigeon breeders appreciate the distance stages.

According to the regulations according to which the Romanian pigeon fanciers compete, the stages with a distance of more than 700 km fall into the Marathon category. There are also stages with a distance of over 900 km, which also fall under the Marathon category, but in the Extreme section.

17 marathon races this weekend

Romania is divided into six provinces, so this weekend there will be marathon stages all over the country. Of the 17 stages, 12 are Marathon,  they have a distance of up to 900 km, and the rest are from the Extreme category, over 900 km. The pigeons have already been basketed and are on their way to the launch locations. As expected, the flight routes are different. For example, pigeons will be launched from Lithuania, Germany, Poland or even Greece, but most stages are on the Poland route. Thus, pigeon fanciers from the province of Moldova chose launch locations from Lithuania, such as Code, those from Transylvania and the Southeast compete in Poland, from locations such as Terespol or Augustow, and those from the West will launch from Germany. We will have, for the first time, a Marathon competition starting from Athens (Greece), for which pigeon fans from the counties of Gorj, Vâlcea, Argeș, Dâmbovița and Prahova have embarked. 

It is also interesting to see the numbers of basketed pigeons. As expected, Moldova leads the charts, with the Code stage, for which 15,563 pigeons were basketed by the 766 breeders from Botoșani and Suceava counties. For Augustow, 10,363 pigeons were entered, with the participation of 530 breeders, and at Karlovy Vary, a stage for breeders from the West, 8,534 pigeons (746 breeders) were basketed. But, in total, no less than 96,391 pigeons were basketed, which is an extraordinary figure for our country!