The “Iacob Gabi & Costică” Team – Impressive Results Right from the Start

Among the pigeon fanciers from the Suceava Branch — a branch that has 852 active fanciers for the 2025 season — we now also find the team “Iacob Gabi & Costică.” This is their debut season as a team. However, their performance in the competitions held so far has been very good, with the potential to become truly outstanding.

At first glance, one might assume this is a newly formed tandem. In reality, though, the name “Iacob Gabi & Costică” represents three pigeon fanciers: Iacob Chindriș, Gabi Bîrgăoan, and Costică Bîrgăoan. All three are from the town of Cajvana and are part of the pigeon fancier club of the same name. As mentioned, the 2025 season is their first competing together. Besides their shared passion for pigeons, they are also united by family ties — all three are brothers-in-law!

58 Young Birds at the Start of the Season

Before teaming up with his two brothers-in-law, Iacob Chindriș had previously competed alone during the 2023 season, when he achieved a series of impressive results, including a first-place county-level award in the Young Bird Middle Distance category. He paused his pigeon racing activities after 2023, but resumed them in 2025 as part of this team, starting with a group of 58 young birds. Since they no longer had breeding pigeons, the trio had to purchase several groups of youngsters from fellow fanciers. Among them were Ovidiu Hrab and Ionuț Leșan, from whom they acquired a lot of 20 pigeons.

The team’s racing loft consists of birds capable of winning in short, middle, and even long-distance races. After raising one youngster each and competing in the first two speed stages using the natural method, their pigeons were switched to widowhood and will continue racing under this system until the end of the season.

Iacob Chindriș

One Step Away from Spectacular Results

Even though they are only young birds, the flyers of the three fanciers have performed very well. Besides their impressive results in individual stages (12 x top 3), several pigeons from the “Iacob Gabi & Costică” team have already met the criteria for multiple competition categories — even though the season is still ongoing. One such pigeon is the male RO-2024-0322576, who already has 10 classified stages. Among these are four long-distance races, where he scored exceptionally low points. He has already completed the All Round category requirement, and in the Long Distance category, he has achieved a record-low score of only 1.41 penalty points! Therefore, with several races still to come, the team's results could become even more impressive.

As for pigeon preparation, the three brothers-in-law use a simple method. They feed a single type of mixture — no. 816 Gino Clicque from Vanrobaeys — administered daily, both before and after the races. They participate in every stage (i.e., weekly), and between competitions, they train the birds once or twice with 30 km tosses.