The final race in the fifth edition of the now well known Algarve Golden Race in Portugal took place on 24th of September. The overall winner is Recep-Emín Bayramoglu-Team B from Turkey, an emerging country in pigeon racing. The second and third place go to the Aviators Loft (France) and Robert Van Landschoot (Belgium), which makes for an international podium.
The basketers have a lot of work to do for the final race
A record edition
This one loft race takes place in the southeast of Portugal in the beautiful Algarve region, which has sun, sea and beaches almost all year round. This makes it an ideal location for combining a pigeon race with holidays. Five years ago, in 2012, Rui and his team organised this race for the first time. The race continued to develop over the years and 2016 was a record edition with an impressive 5400 pigeons at the start line, fighting for the first prize worth of 100,000 euro. It is fair to say the race has grown to become the biggest one loft race worldwide, except for China of course, which organises even bigger events. Still, almost every renowned fancier from around the globe has sent in pigeons for this OLR.
De Coopers, Ludo Claessens, Nikolaas Gyselbrecht (PEC), Floria Sorin, Alfons Klaas and Mark Evans are just a few of many familiar names that sent their pigeons to Portugal
A tough final and a great winner
The race consists of a few training flights followed by four ace pigeon races. The last ace pigeon race is also the final, which took place on 24th of September. The final race over 505km took place in the north of Portugal, and it proved a difficult flight with a lot of headwind. Additionally, the pigeons had to cross a mountainous area in the first 100km as well.
Despite the tough conditions there were no major issues during the race, and by the time we were writing our report 2,400 of a total of 3,400 pigeons had made it back home. The winner of a first prize is Recep-Emín Bayramoglu-Team B from Turkey. It was a great achievement from an emerging country in pigeon racing. Our congratulations to Turkey! The second place goes to the French Aviators Loft, which is run by the well-known fancier-doctor Martian Maindrelle. The third place goes to Robert Van Landschoot from Belgium. A fancier from Spain and the Romanian Team Florea complete our top five.
Many happy faces on the final day of the race, including all of our agents (top left)
There was a remarkable winner in the ace pigeon competition: this racing bird won a top 70 prize in each ace pigeon race, as well as a 10th place in the final. It was sent in by Team Nijman and it had been purchased in the form of a voucher. Its nest mate claimed a 36th prize in the final. The second place in the ace pigeon competition goes to Wegrestaurant Napoleon, which is a Dutch team as well. The third prize was won by Clemens Ivanschitz from Austria. Claessens-PEC has not only won the fourth prize, they also have four different ace pigeons in the top 48 with a team of 15 pigeons. Reinhold Schuler finishes in 5th place in the ace pigeon competition.
We would like to congratulate the winners on a great performance. We also congratulate the organisers for running such a wonderful event.
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