Approximately 5,000 Pigeons Entered in the Vilnius II Marathon. Gheorghiță Tanasă and Adrian Dencef Deliver the Standout Performances

While the National Riga race attracted the attention of most Romanian fanciers, several other marathon races were also held across the Moldavian region during the same weekend. Among them was the Vilnius II Marathon, featuring competitors from the Neamț and Iași Federations.

A total of 276 fanciers entered the race, including 170 from the Neamț Federation and 106 from the Iași Federation, with an overall entry of 4,985 racing pigeons. Of these, 2,802 represented the Neamț Federation and 2,183 the Iași Federation. This was the second marathon race of the season, with liberation taking place on Saturday, June 20, at 05:00 a.m. from Vilnius, Lithuania.

Gheorghiță Tanasă Wins the Race

Following the 05:00 a.m. liberation, the pigeons faced distances ranging from 800 to 890 kilometres. The first arrivals were recorded after approximately 11 hours on the wing, among them the hen RO-25-2052338, raced by Gheorghiță Tanasă from Târgu-Neamț.

The hen covered a distance of 823 km and was clocked at 3:45:10 p.m. Recording a velocity of 1,275.92 m/min, she immediately emerged as the leading contender for first place. As the arrivals continued, no other pigeon managed to surpass her performance, securing the young hen her first major victory.

"After a six-year break, I returned to racing in 2021. I compete in every race on the programme, regardless of distance, although I particularly enjoy one-day races. I also enter extreme-distance events, but the marathons that are completed on the first day are my favourites. Each season I race around 50 pigeons. My breeding loft consists of 12 pairs, producing approximately 60 youngsters annually. The racing team is competed on the natural system, and this season I have not used any supplements for preparation or recovery, nor have I administered any treatments. Feeding is based exclusively on a simple grain mixture produced by Ioan Feștilă. The winning hen was basketed while sitting 10-day-old eggs. All pigeons in the racing team reared one or two youngsters during the spring before being left on dummy eggs, with each nest position planned according to the target races. I did not carry out any special preparation for this marathon. Before the race, the pigeons competed in a sprint event. The winning hen is bred from a cock obtained from Dănuț Aparaschivei and an original Jelle Jellema hen, a granddaughter of Silke, purchased from the Afrasinei Brothers", said Gheorghiță Tanasă.

Adrian Dencef Tops the Fanciers Classification

The Vilnius II Marathon also proved to be an outstanding success for Adrian Dencef of Răucești, Neamț County. He entered 27 pigeons and, in addition to several excellent individual performances, secured first place in the Overall Fanciers' Classification. Of the 27 pigeons basketed, 11 won prizes over the 819 km distance, while his final fanciers' coefficient was an outstanding 14.44 penalty points. This remarkable result was achieved thanks to the fact that his first two arrivals were both nominated team pigeons. The first to arrive was the hen RO-23-1201993, clocked at 3:52:39 p.m. A proven performer in the loft, she is the Provincial Champion in the 2-Year Marathon Ace Pigeon category and finished 14th Open in the race. She was followed at 4:04:40 p.m. by the cock RO-24-2009072, which finished 58th Open.

"My preferred categories are Long Distance, Marathon and Extreme Distance, where I compete with a racing team of approximately 90 pigeons. I race on the widowhood system. In previous seasons I separated the pairs while they still had small youngsters, but this year I allowed them to rear their young and only separated them after the middle-distance programme. The feed I use is, for the most part, produced by Ioan Feștilă. Since I do not compete in sprint races, I keep my pigeons fit with training tosses of around 60 kilometres, carried out twice a week. That was essentially the preparation for the Vilnius II Marathon", Adrian Dencef explained.