Rules for the Marathon Youngsters category in the 2024 season

It has not been a news for a long time that many pigeon fancier associations in Romania organize marathon stages for youngters as well,  stages with a distance of over 700 km. This phenomenon is somewhat more pronounced in the province of Moldova.

Four counties from the province of Moldova, namely Suceava, Iași, Botoșani and Neamț, have also included two marathon stages in the 2024 youngsters season. The chosen launch location was Suwalki, Poland, the distances being between 750 and 850 km.

More than 2000 youngsters engaged in the first marathon

The first marathon was attended by 215 breeders from the mentioned counties, who employed a number of 2,047 youngsters. The stage took place on September 21, 2024 and, despite prejudices, it can be considered a successful contest. Released at 07:43, the first the youngsters managed to reach the lofts around 18:00, the 1st place on the launch having a speed of 1,250.62 m/min. Moreover, more than 260 youngsters arrived on the first day, thus creating the conditions and fueling the hopes of the participants for meeting the norms in this less common category.

He didn't have to wait long. About two weeks later, on October 10, 2024, the second marathon competition was organized, which we can say was just as successful. 1,021 youngsters (168 participating breeders) were employed and, although slightly more difficult than the first, Suwalki 2 enabled more youngsters to meet the Marathon category norm, a real feat in itself. 

114 norms

More precisely, we are talking about 114 norms made by youngsters, 114 young flyers who, at both stages of the marathon where they were hired, managed to rank in the first 20% of the total number of pigeons hired. At county level, the most rules were implemented in Suceava county, respectively 76, and the fewest, two, in Neamț, where the fewest participants were from.

Giani Roman

National top 3

The breeders in the first three national places also come from the mentioned protocol. The 1st place was awarded to the team "Gyany & Ylm" from Iași, made up of pigeon lovers Giani Roman and Ionuț Martin. The national champion is the youngster with the series RO-2024-1160996, which accumulated only 5.42 penalty points. Such a low coefficient comes from being ranked 1st per launch in the first competition (2,047 pigeons) and 8th in the second (1,021 pigeons).

The 2nd national place is occupied by Mihai Pintilie, from Suceava, and the 3rd national place went to another fancier from Iași, in the person of Andrei Mihalache.