2007 National Winners:
Part 2

by Stefan Mertens

Part 2 of Three Parts. For Part 1, click here.
For Part 3, click here.

Click on any photo
  for larger version 


Erik Limbourg
and "Bleu Surprise"

The wing of
"Bleu Surprise"

Erik Limbourg
and a friend
with some
champions







The lofts of
Erik Limbourg











The Menne family









The Menne lofts

"Susi" with her
youngster


 










"Susi" -- the
Barcelona
International
champion

"Camille" -
The national
Barcelona winner

The Haerinck-
Poelmans family

Van Ouwerkerk
and Dekkers

25,820 OLD BIRDS (International)

Just like in 2001, when Friedhelm Menne and his three daughters (Simone, Rafaela and Fabienne) won the international victory from Perpignan, we again met a very happy team. How could you ask for more when you can put the international victory from Barcelona on your performance list? Friedhelm started with pigeons in 1984, and in 1988 he began to concentrate on the very long distance races. His base birds are pigeons from De Smet-Matthijs, Van Wanroy, Eijerkamp-Muller, and Van Der Wegen (through Nico Pronk).


Father and daughters Menne race their birds on nest position with 47 couples. The winning bird is a very nice hen named "Susi" (DV05583-04-980) who was basketted on a youngster of just a few days old.
Her father is "Zoon Serena" (DV05583-01-608) or in other words a son of "Serena," (DV00448-98-571), who won the 1st international Perpignan against 25,471 birds. "Serena" was coupled with "Zoon Alexander" (DV05583-99-443 - strain VD Wegen).
Mother of "Susi" is DV06720-03-888 or a daughter of the "Armstrong" from P. and HP Brockamp. "Armstrong" (DV06720-96-607) won the 1st international Perpignan against 17,584 birds). It is worth noting that this international winner from Barcelona has two international winners as grandparents … better is almost not possible!

12,612 OLD BIRDS (national Belgium)

Haerinck-Poelmans is not an unknown name in the pigeon sport. For many years, they have been among the top fanciers of Belgium. Everything started when they bought a lot of birds from Nouwen-Paesen (Grote Broghel). The line of "Perpignanduivin" and "Narbonne" have been especially successful. We can say that 75% of the colony has Nouwen-Paesen blood. The winning bird is a hen called "Camille" (B01-5094750). She was part of a team of three hens, which is not a lot for a very long-distance racer.

These three hens sat the whole season between the young birds, and were then especially coupled for Barcelona so that they had a youngster of a few days old in nest. "Camille" was one of the favourites of our national winners because before winning this Barcelona edition she had already won 29th national Barcelona against 12,998 (in 2005), 22nd national Perpignan against 6,765b, 1829th national Barcelona against 11,802b. (in 2006).
Her father is "B98-5063248" (grandson "De Narbonne" from Nouwen-Paesen). Mother "Camille" is "Zus Kleine Didi" (B97-3000356), direct Etienne Devos from Deerlijk and full sister of the world famous "Kleine Didi" (1st nat. Dax - 2nd nat. Perpignan - 1st nat. acebird long distance).


07.06.07 IRUN
Distance Brussels: 980 km

We're still in the weekend of the bird flu, the weekend that every pigeon race was forbidden in France, but the year birds which were already on the road to St Vincent couldn't come back. Because of this restriction, the organiser of this race decided to go further with the birds, namely to Irun. Irun is situated in Spain, just over the border with France.

8964 YEARBIRDS

Their lofts in
Brasschaat










"Mister St. Vincent"

The partnership of Jaak Van Ouwerkerk and Irene Dekkers as very long-distance racers is felt at the center of their hearts. For this husband-wife combination, only three races count, namely Barcelona, St. Vincent (this year Irun) and Perpignan. Another thing is that this combination likes to basket a lot of birds. This year they had basketted for Barcelona 98 old birds (45 won prizes), and for Irun 126 year birds (39 won prizes). Jaak and Irene started with pigeons in 1995. In the beginning they had only pigeons from Gerard Koopman but after some years they decided to try their luck on the very long distance, and the Koopman birds made room for pigeons from Van der Wegen, Bertus Wijnacker, Braakhuis, Gebr. Kuypers, Jan Theelen, Jos Thoné, Roger van Bulck, Marc De Cock and Erik Limbourg.

The winning bird is a blue cock and is named after the race for which he was basketted- "Mister St. Vincent" (B06-6181664). His father is B03-6387342, who is a son of B99-6483379 who won the 2nd provincial Barcelona (line Thoné X Wijnacker). Mother is B04-6469059, a daughter of Miss St. Vincent, or the hen that won for this partnership also the 1st national St. Vincent in 2003.

The Goossens-
Druart family
with their
champion












"Federer"

07.14.07 IRUN
Distance Brussels: 980 km

5253 OLD BIRDS

Normally this race would have taken place from Tarbes, but again due to the bird flu the pigeons had to be transported to another place, not in France but in Spain, and therefore the organizers went, just like the week before, to Irun. In total, more than 5000 birds were basketted, and on Saturday morning they were released for a very hard race. We can certainly say very hard, because on liberation day only 14 birds were clocked. The national winner was Jean-Pierre Goossens and his wife Ingrid Druart, heartily supported by their son Kevin. Their teacher has always been Jean-Claude Debiève and a lot of his birds were bought. But when these fanciers wanted to basket for the long- and very long-distance races, they changed the Debiève birds for pigeons of: Georges Carteus (Ronse), Gaby Vandenabeele (Dentergem), Vandeputte en zoon (Cuesmes), and Yves Samain (Hyon). Every year they have 65 widowers, 20 hens, 80 youngsters and 24 breeding pairs sitting in the lofts.

The winning bird is named after the champion tennis player, "Federer" (B05-9103168). Before winning Irun he won the 34th provincial Tulle against 1292b., 230th Vierzon against 12,872b., 458th Montlucon against 17,366b., and 780th Bourges against 13,118b.
His father is the "Crigine" (B99-9080304), who is also father of the 67th national Perpignan against 3796b. Mother is "B99-9143675"-one of the best breeding hens in the loft and mother of several top racers.

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WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2007
THE WINNER IS WILLIAM LUYTEN FROM BELGIUM

After Gran Canaria (1993), Utrecht (1994), Bazel (1996), Mira (1997), Buenes Aires (1998), Mexico (1999), Beijing (2000), Sun-City (2001), Roye (2002), Mira (2003), Santiago de Compestella (2004), Hojduszoboszlo (2005) and again Mira (2006) it was now Belgium's honor to organize the official world championship of the F.C.I. (Fédération Colombophilie Internationale).

First of all, we want to mention that never before had the World championship taken place in Belgium. Normally the final race had to be held in August 2006 but bird flu determined a different set of events. The first location of the lofts was near the factory of Versele-Laga, and if the bird flu was identified there, there was a possibility that Versele-Laga would have to close the factory. Therefore the K.B.D.B. and the race's main sponsor, Versele-Laga, cancelled the 2006 race for Belgium and gave its organisation to Mira (Portugal). But Mr. Vermeulen (president of the K.B.D.B.) truly wished to organize this Olympiad and World Championship race and asked to host the 2007 race. This was determined to be no problem, and the 87-meter-long loft was erected in Nevele, a little village near Gent.



21 COUNTRIES

Normally the participation for this one-loft race is open to all the countries which are members of the F.C.I., but again due to the bird flu the K.B.D.B. didn't get an importation permit for the countries outside the European Union. Therefore, only 21 countries could participate in this World Championship. Each country could participate with a maximum of 25 pigeons.
Due to this restriction, the K.B.D.B., F.C.I., and Versele-Laga decided also to create a youth competition. This youth competition (named "Grand Prix Jeugd 2007") was only for Belgian youth. With this step, the number of pigeons on the loft was set at a maximum of 60 birds.