National Madona 2025, Moldova’s Benchmark Competition

Unlike other regions, Moldova did not have to change its flight route for marathon stages. At the same time, fanciers from this province are among the most "conservative" in the country, in the sense that they have chosen—and succeeded—to maintain the same marathon stages for several years now, turning them into true "classics." One such stage is the National Madona, with liberation in Latvia, arguably the most anticipated event of the entire season.

As in previous years, National Madona is a provincial competition, bringing together all six counties of the Moldova province. Due to flight distances exceeding 900 km for all participants, National Madona qualifies as an Extreme category race. This year, 19,682 pigeons were released on the morning of July 12 at 05:23 AM.

The winner is Ionuț Niță, from the Vaslui Branch

Since the six counties in Moldova are aligned two-by-two along the flight path, the distances for the National Madona 2025 stage ranged from just under 1,000 km for lofts in the first two counties to over 1,100 km for fanciers in Bacău and Vaslui. However, as Moldovan pigeons are well known for their ability to fly at night, it was clear to everyone that the first-place winner would be determined only on the second day of the race—which is exactly what happened, despite 39 pigeons arriving on the first day.

The big winner was Ionuț Niță, from the Vaslui Branch, competing under the name “Team Niță.” Released at 05:23, the first arrivals landed in Suceava and Botoșani, but during the neutralization period, more pigeons reached lofts in the other counties as well. Certainly, the hen RO-2023-0469604, which secured the win for Ionuț Niță, flew through the night—otherwise, she could not have arrived at 05:39:29, after covering a distance of 1,154 km. "I started the season with about 100 pigeons raced on widowhood. I also competed them on the first marathon and first extreme stage in widowhood, but I wasn’t satisfied with their performance. I decided to switch to the natural system, and for Madona they raced while sitting on eggs. The winning hen had been on eggs for 5–6 days at the time of basketing. She was bred from a hen from Costel Irimia, and her father had been raced by me and later used for breeding. For this stage, I tried helping them with a few evening training tosses, about 70 km away, timed so they’d return at dusk," said Ionuț Niță.

Vlad-Constantin Asavei is the winner from fanciers ranking

Among the 1,170 fanciers who participated in the National Madona stage, the most inspired in selecting and preparing his race team was Vlad-Constantin Asavei, from the Neamț Branch. A passionate competitor in extreme marathon stages—and a multiple county champion in this category—Vlad-Constantin Asavei entered 24 pigeons, half of which made it to the result list. For his team, the fancier from Piatra-Neamț relied on hens RO-2022-1091010 and RO-2021-1193009, both of which delivered top performances. The first arrived during the night, at 02:41:46, ranking 27th overall. Just six minutes later, another night-time arrival followed. The morning then began perfectly: at 05:11:07, another pigeon arrived, and only 39 seconds later the second team hen landed, finishing 33rd in the overall race. As a result, Vlad-Constantin Asavei secured 1st place in the fanciers’ ranking, with only 3.07 penalty points. "I've been racing since 2015, but in the past four years, I’ve focused more on extreme marathon stages. I race pigeons on the natural system; the two hens I used for the team were entered—one while feeding a chick (the first arrival), and the other on eggs. Before basketing, I gave them three training tosses between 50 and 150 km. I also want to mention that the hen who arrived at night, first in the loft, is a full sister of a cock who also returned at night in the Birzai National 2024 stage," detailed Vlad-Constantin Asavei.

County Rankings

Here are the rankings by county:

Suceava (11,488 pigeons and 618 fanciers)

1st place pigeons: Ionel Cotlet

1st place fanciers: Gabriel Slabu

Botoșani (2,608 pigeons and 182 fanciers)

1st place pigeons: Chișcăreni Loft

1st place fanciers: Florin Guraliuc

Bacău (1,065 pigeons and 70 fanciers)

1st place pigeons: Măgirescu+Ojog+Dorneanu

1st place fanciers: Constantin Coman

Iași (1,765 pigeons and 93 fanciers)

1st place pigeons: Claudiu Loghin

1st place fanciers: Pavăl Family

Vaslui (1,051 pigeons and 86 fanciers)

1st place pigeons: Team Niță

1st place fanciers: Vasile Cordeanu

Neamț (1,705 pigeons and 121 fanciers)

1st place pigeons and fanciers: Vlad-Constantin Asavei