Was Nordhausen a disaster or just a tougher marathon?

There is no doubt that, from the point of view of the profile, Romanian pigeon fanciers are, in their vast majority, marathon lovers. Until the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, marathon competitions in our country had reached astonishing heights in all pigeon-loving provinces. The closure of the route through Ukraine threw the south of the country into a real haze, but here too things are starting to return to normal, with marathon stages in Poland or Greece. Therefore, Moldova and the West remained the two provinces where the marathon stages remained at the same level or maybe even increased in intensity, but what has definitely changed is the Romanian pigeon fancier's mentality regarding these competitions.

Until recently, in all of Romania, if at a marathon stage of over 1,100 km, as in the case of the Izium National stage for example, most of the pigeons did not arrive on the first day, it was considered that a real catastrophe was underway . Closing the standings or almost closing them on the first day of the marathon stages has become the norm in our country, and with the decrease of the competition distance to +700 km, most marathon stages end on the day of the launch. Recently, the Extreme category was reintroduced for the marathon stages, which means distances of over 900 km, but even so, the Romanian breeder remained with the same aspirations.

Nordhausen, a marathon stage with arrivals only on the second and third day

On June 29, the 3,679 pigeons entered in the Nordhausen competition, organized by the Bihor Columbophile Branch for all of the Western province, were released. 408 pigeon fanciers participated, from the counties of Arad, Bihor, Timiș, Caraș Severin, Satu Mare, Sălaj, Maramureș, Cluj and Alba, and the distances respected the norm imposed for the Extreme category (+900 km). Moreover, the vast majority of participants had distances of nearly 1,000 or more than 1,000 km. As in the whole country, the heat created great problems for pigeons, especially in the Western area, where the Hungarian Plain is known for its aridity. Under these conditions, the first day of the competition ended without any registered pigeons. The next day, at 05:33:09, the cock RO-2022-0454761 arrived, competed by the Ardelean Ionuț+Nikolas tandem, who became the winner of the stage (980 km; speed 1030.71 m/min). An hour later, the second-place pigeon, competed by Florin Brindea from Bihor, was registered, and at 07:41:57, the third-place pigeon was registered, competed by the tandem of Fildan V. & Rutten R., also from Bihor. In total, 418 pigeons arrived on the second day, with the remainder up to 736 by the close of the standings arriving on the third day.

Considering all these mentioned aspects, we can ask the question: Was Nordhausen a catastrophe or just a marathon competition something tougher and closer to the normality of these competitions?

* In foto, Ionut Ardelean with the winner