The Liutic Brothers, Winners of the 2026 Berlin International

Berlin has long ceased to be merely a national race. Having evolved into an international competition, Berlin is now one of Romania’s most important and longest-running marathon races. The 2026 edition marked the 16th running at national level and the third international edition, further strengthening the status of a race that has become a benchmark event for many fanciers. In such a context, winning Berlin means much more than simply taking first place in the results.

In terms of its representativeness, Berlin International also stands out because of the scale of participation. It is the race that brings together, every year, the largest number of UNCR-Columba branches and, unlike other national competitions, clearly goes beyond the boundaries of a single pigeon racing province. At the 2026 edition, 900 fanciers were present at basketing, representing 22 branches. Moreover, the race brought together participants from all six pigeon racing provinces of the country. This says a great deal about the prestige the event has gained over time: regardless of where they came from and the distance their pigeons would have to cover, fanciers considered Berlin International a sufficiently important challenge to put their birds to the test.

With its large-scale participation and truly national and international character, Berlin remains one of the few races where competition clearly transcends the boundaries of a single geographical area and brings together pigeons and fanciers from almost the entire country.

More Than 6,000 Pigeons at the Start

At national level, participation by county was as follows: Arad – 799 pigeons and 79 fanciers; Botoșani – 495 pigeons and 69 fanciers; Iași – 226 pigeons and 27 fanciers; Vaslui – 74 pigeons and 11 fanciers; Galați – 61 pigeons and 6 fanciers; Cluj – 177 pigeons and 57 fanciers; Hunedoara – 30 pigeons and 14 fanciers; Alba – 115 pigeons and 53 fanciers; Bistrița-Năsăud – 32 pigeons and 8 fanciers; Mureș – 30 pigeons and 13 fanciers; Sibiu – 6 pigeons and 4 fanciers; Bihor – 329 pigeons and 54 fanciers; Suceava – 1,748 pigeons and 224 fanciers; Neamț – 74 pigeons and 11 fanciers; Caraș-Severin – 572 pigeons and 87 fanciers; Dolj – 22 pigeons and 5 fanciers; Olt – 18 pigeons and 3 fanciers; Olt 2 – 9 pigeons and 2 fanciers; Satu Mare – 398 pigeons and 55 fanciers; Timiș – 446 pigeons and 56 fanciers; Sălaj – 165 pigeons and 37 fanciers; and Maramureș – 122 pigeons and 25 fanciers.

In total, at national level, 5,948 pigeons were entered by exactly 900 fanciers. International participation completed the picture of an exceptional edition. Kosovo entered 50 pigeons with 15 fanciers, while Albania was represented by 59 fanciers, who entered 124 pigeons. Thus, after basketing had been completed, the official figures for the 2026 Berlin International were 6,122 pigeons and 974 fanciers.

The Liutic Brothers Make History in Berlin

The pigeons were released on the morning of August 8 at 08:15. Depending on their geographical location, the birds had to cover distances ranging from more than 900 to approximately 1,200 kilometers. The longest routes naturally belonged to fanciers from the Moldavia and Oltenia provinces, where the distance exceeded the 1,200-kilometer mark.

Weather conditions did not decisively affect the race, meaning that Berlin International 2026 was, above all, a test of preparation and pigeon quality. The difficulty of the race was worthy of the Extreme category, and the arrivals once again confirmed just how important selection is for such distances.

After approximately 12 hours of flying, it appeared that the first day of the race would end without any arrivals. However, two hens managed to complete the race on the very first day.

The first arrival was RO-24-2001195, raced by Cătălin Galos from Arad, clocked at 21:11:44 after covering 969 km. Shortly afterwards, at 21:49:37, RO-24-2006544, raced by the Ilea Brothers from Bihor, arrived after covering 927 km. The two hens therefore occupied the first two positions after the opening day. However, the “Berlin” race was far from decided. The morning of the second day was to bring the great surprise of the edition.

The winners were brothers Ionuț and Andrei Liutic from Botoșani, with their branch winning the Berlin International for the first time. The achievement was accomplished by hen RO-23-1030044, which arrived from Berlin at 07:08:33. The hen covered the 1,141 km at an average speed of 1,281.51 m/min, earning her 1st place at the 2026 Berlin International.

“Moșu” – The Foundation of an Extreme Marathon Family

The Liutic brothers’ success is no coincidence. It is the result of years of selection and of a family of pigeons that has repeatedly proven its quality in marathon racing.

“We are brothers Andrei and Ionuț Liutic. We have kept pigeons since we were children, but we started bringing racing pigeons into our loft in 2015, particularly extreme-distance pigeons from the Jan Aarden line. We were fortunate enough to acquire a grandson of Bas Batenburg’s famous ‘Witbuik’. We named him ‘Moșu’ because he was already 14 years old in 2015. He died in 2025 at the age of 24, leaving behind outstanding genetic material, which is, in fact, the foundation of our loft and will remain so. Over the years, his grandchildren have brought us some very good results. In 2019, we achieved 1st and 2nd place in Tartu FCPR at county level, as well as 1st place in the fanciers’ competition, with his granddaughters, on the release. In 2023, another granddaughter of his won 1st place in the Birzai two-year-old championship at county level, and the following year she achieved 3rd place in the Extreme three-year-old championship at county level. In 2024, another granddaughter of his finished 25th National in Hamburg. In 2025, with a night arrival at 01:47, another granddaughter of ‘Moșu’ won 1st place in Birzai at county level and 25th National. And now, in 2026, yet another granddaughter of his has won 1st International at Berlin. We believe we can say that ‘Moșu’ was a very good breeder. The hen was raced on the natural system, sitting on one-week-old eggs. On the dam’s side, she is from the Cor de Heijde line, from pigeons imported by Bogdan Sorin, while on the sire’s side she descends from a son of ‘Moșu’. For feed, we use products from Versele-Laga. In the breeding loft we have 18 pairs, while the racing team consists of approximately 40 pairs”.

A Family Bred for Extreme Marathon

Over the years, the Liutic brothers have established a very clear objective: to build a family of pigeons capable of coping with the most demanding marathon races.

“We are delighted that we have managed to establish a family of pigeons based on the Jan Aarden line, and we will continue to compete in hard races around the 1,100-kilometer mark, with late arrivals on the first day or arrivals during the morning of the second day, because this is where a true extreme-distance pigeon shows its real value. We have pigeons from the following Jan Aarden lines: Piet Lazeroms, Bas Batenburg, Henk van Agtmaal, Cor de Heijde, Iurieți Relu, Frans Bungeneers, Gebr. Hagens, Gerard van Tuyl and others. As for our 1st International at Berlin 2026, this result confirmed that we are on the right track when it comes to selecting pigeons for the category we are aiming for – extreme marathon. At the same time, it gave us immense joy, the kind of joy every fancier who is passionate about extreme marathon racing dreams of,” Andrei Liutic explained.

The victory at the 2026 Berlin International therefore represents not only an outstanding performance in a race with more than 6,000 pigeons, but also confirmation of a direction in selection and preparation that the Liutic brothers have followed for more than a decade.