Petre Ungureanu and the Slăniceanu & Bartoș tandem, the aces of the 2025 Yearling Speed category

From a competitive standpoint, the Ace categories are always those that generate special emotions and require an extra level of effort. This is explained by the fact that ace pigeons must compete flawlessly, since the standards of the Ace categories in the National Championship, regardless of distance, are achieved exclusively through participation and classification in all the scheduled races for that category. The absence of a “backup option” means that the number of standards in the Ace categories is much lower compared to other categories. This is also the case for the Young Birds Speed Ace category, where, in the 2025 season, only 287 standards were homologated. To better illustrate the difficulty of the category, it is worth mentioning that in Yearling Speed all 5,000 places in the National Catalogue were filled.

According to the current pigeon racing regulations, county federations may organize a maximum of eight speed races per season, over distances ranging from 100 to 400 km. To fulfill the Speed Ace standard, pigeons are required to place in all eight stages. The high level of difficulty means that pigeons ranked in the top national positions—especially those in the top three—can truly be considered exceptional performers.

Petre Ungureanu claims 1st and 2nd place nationally

After finishing 3rd nationally in the Yearling Speed category, the Bucharest fancier Petre Ungureanu managed to overturn the hierarchy in the 2025 season in the Yearling Speed Ace category. Moreover, the Capital-based breeder secured both the national champion and vice-champion titles. This outstanding achievement is further complemented by a third pigeon ranked 5th nationally, meaning that Petre Ungureanu has three pigeons in the national top five.

The national champion is a cock with ring number RO-2024-0500399, a nest brother to the hen ranked 3rd nationally in Yearling Speed. He accumulated a penalty coefficient of 72.64 points. The rankings were obtained exclusively from the general classifications, and in seven of the stages the number of competing pigeons exceeded 5,000.

Second place was taken by another cock, RO-2024-0711877, with a penalty coefficient of 79.17 points.

“The champion is a full brother to the hen ranked 3rd nationally in Yearling Speed. Their mother has Leideman origins on the maternal line, being bred directly from the well-known cock ‘10800’ of the Cocoș Petrică – Mușat Robert tandem. The father comes from a cock of the Poenaru – Călin team, a son of Olympic pigeons, and a hen from Paul Porumbescu, daughter of the Olympic pigeon ‘215’. The second pigeon has 75% Gust Cristiaens and 25% Vandenheede origins, being bred from two pigeons of the Petrică Cocoș – Robert Mușat tandem. The cock ranked 5th nationally, also a very valuable pigeon, was bred by Paul Porumbescu; the father comes from George Tîlvâc and is related to an Olympic pigeon, while the mother comes from Vasile Daju of Sibiu, a daughter of the famous ‘Klitschko’ and a half-sister, on the father’s side, to Dragoș Chirițescu’s Olympic pigeon,” specified Petre Ungureanu.

Slăniceanu & Bartoș, once again on the national podium

Consistently present on the national podium since the 2021 season—when they placed 3rd in the Olympic team in the G- Yearling category—Viorel Slăniceanu and István Bartoș from Arad confirmed their form again in 2025. The Arad-based tandem achieved 3rd place nationally in the Yearling Speed Ace category with the cock RO-2024-0054061, a grandson of their first top racer, “Olimpic Ineu,” the pigeon ranked 3rd nationally in G- Yearling in 2021.

The new star of the loft, whose collaboration began in 2022, finished the season with a penalty coefficient of 82.57 points. 

“We compete exclusively with widowhood cocks, which we try to prepare as well as possible. We started the season with 42 pigeons and, overall, it was a successful year, with new national results that make us happy. It is important that the pigeon ranked 3rd nationally is a grandson of ‘Olimpic Ineu,’ who has also produced the hen ranked 3rd nationally in Yearling Speed in 2023. We use Animi’s feed and Flanders Finest supplements, and when we consider it necessary, the cocks are sent on training flights of approximately 45 km,” stated Viorel Slăniceanu.