Race: Race 4 (302.89 km)

Race 4 is the first race that counts for a 3-races cup prestige competition. 

It is a pleasure to write a report of a successful race like it was race 4 from Szolnok. The week before was an awful week with a crazy temperature of around 35C. after the days of heavy rain and fluting, another extreme weather did heat us in the central part of Europe. 

It was impossible to function normally over the day, which was unusual for this time of year. The pigeon's races in the neighborships didn’t go well days before, so we were even more worried and did our best to prepare the pigeons for the extreme conditions. 

We decided to shorten the race by 20km. 20 km sounds not much, but it means around 20 min less flight time, which can be crucial in extreme heat. Next, we decided to go with an early start. We usually don’t practice it. However, it was a risky decision that obviously went in favor of the pigeons this time. 

1466 pigeons were released at 6:30 in the Szolnok area, 303 km from the AviRings lofts. It was already 18 C and a moderate northeast wind. The first group of pigeons arrived at 10:24 with a speed of 1291 m/min. Surprisingly early, according to our expectations, the pigeons went straight into the lofts to search the water. 

We congratulations to the winners:

1. 🥇Daniela Koffler DV-7236-1422
2. 🥈AlpineLoft (Tomaž Šlibar) SLO-8417-108
3. 🥉Grandchildren Harrys DV-1777-483
4. Jože Kos   SLO-2023-101-6803
5. Tone Čebašek  SLO-2023-108-9204
6. M & S Kobal   SLO-2023-112-4562    
7. Team Behrens/Böllstof  DV-2023-1211-142
8. Anton Gaber  SLO-2023-114-841
9. Team V&M  MK-2023-232111
10. Tamas Wagner HU-2023-14-74218    

Congratulations especially to top-3: Daniela, Tomaž and Olaf and also to all others with good results.

It was a great first group, with mostly German and Slovenian pigeons. We have to notice again: Slovenian pigeons won today 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 16th, 19th place among the first twenty places. We are very proud that most of them are Avirings descendants from previous seasons. It looks like AviRings Derby is doing a great job at selecting the best pigeons for OLR-races. 

First day 1024 pigeons were back in the lofts. In the next morning hours the counter showed the 1260 pigeons back home (86%), but we hope that even more pigeons will return and be ready for the big challenge next week – SEMIFINAL 400km 

With race 4, the 3-races cup competition started and we start to separate the pigeons by their sex. A lot of work for the team, but we do it with pleasure, knowing that is the professional approach that every AviRings participant deserves. 

Good luck next week.