Two races down, the season is heating up!
8/5/2025
Race 1 – August 1, 2025
The racing season at AviRings Derby PRO 2025 kicked off with the first official race on August 1st. A total of 2101 pigeons were released at 7:35 AM, with perfect weather conditions for racing. Not too hot, with almost no wind. They had to cover a distance of 109 km.
We were more than happy with the race; more than 1100 pigeons came in 10 minutes; till the end of the day, 97% of pigeons returned. Crazy! If we could repeat such an arrival density on every race, that should be our goal.
The first pigeon to return to the lofts after 1 hour, 17 minutes, and 48 seconds was NL-2025-1279218, from fancier Jort Batenburg (NL), flying at a speed of 1,397.56 m/min. We don't need to explain who Jort Batenburg is; he is a well-known fancier who regularly reaches for the top prizes in OLRs worldwide.
Jort Batenburg
Pigeon NL-2025-1279218 Pedigree
Pigeon NL-2025-1279218
Jort shared this on social media after the win:
“Today was the first race of the @avirings OLR. I won first place. The father of the pigeon is a son of Grizzle BK paired to Shakira. The mother of the pigeon (in the picture below) is a daughter of Olympic Gladiator Junior paired to Pattaya Diamond. She was also a good racer herself in the Pattaya OLR for PIPA Elite Center.”
Congratulations, Jort! 👏
Top 10 – Race 1:
- NL-2025-1279218 – Jort Batenburg – 1397.55833 – 8:52:48
- NL-2025-1205416 – Richard Faber – 1395.373524 – 8:52:56
- NL-2025-1026575 – Jelle Jellema – 1394.899211 – 8:52:57
- BE-2025-6182764 – Steve & Annita – 1394.4133 – 8:52:59
- NL-2025-1385503 – Van Helden/Van de Wetering – 1393.234213 – 8:53:03
- NL-2025-1055272 – Corne van Oeveren – 1393.067634 – 8:53:03
- BE-2025-3032131 – BRACKE - FOURNEAU OLR – 1392.282871 – 8:53:06
- AUT-2025-405-352 – Herbert & Roland Krempler – 1391.715658 – 8:53:08
- NL-2025-1026527 – Jelle Jellema – 1391.647386 – 8:53:08
- GR-2025-1020023 – Team G. & D. Aslanidis – 1391.196365 – 8:53:10
Race 2 – August 5, 2025
The second race took place on Tuesday, August 5th. 2,049 pigeons were basketed for the race. They were released at 8:30 AM and had a 138 km flight ahead of them. Weather conditions: Around 20C, moderate headwind wind almost half of the route, and the rest of the route was side wind.
750 pigeons arrived in 10 minutes and by the end of the day, we had 95% pigeons back home. The next day additional 60 pigeons came, and the losses were minimal (2%).
The first to return was DV-2025-09459-721, from German fancier Alexander Hahn, with a speed of 1,306.2 m/min. Alexander is actually quite new in pigeon sport, however, he was already the 4th German Champion with young birds in 2022!
Alexander Hahn
Pigeon DV-2025-09459-721
Father is crossing of J. Donckers line (972) with Koopmann x Heremas by Günter &Ingo Kersting. Mother of the winner won herself in the 2023 national race Lipno (RegV. 200) for Alexander!
Alexander also shared a nice picture from his loft with us!
Congratulations, Alexander! 👏
Top 10 – Race 2:
- DV-2025-09459-721 – Alexander Hahn – 1306.202614 – 10:16:01
- SRB-2025-660128 – Tim D. R. Cile – 1305.785938 – 10:16:03
- BE-2025-4056727 – Team Tom van Gaver & Alberto Abajo – 1305.47822 – 10:16:05
- SLO-2025-107-6711 – Team Ločniškar & Sovič – 1305.387983 – 10:16:05
- DAN-2025-242-1603 – Team Claus & Ulrik – 1304.932889 – 10:16:07
- NL-2025-2536715 – Combinatie van Wanrooij – 1304.441253 – 10:16:10
- CRO-2025-14430 – Goran Gusak – 1303.796541 – 10:16:13
- NL-2025-1143533 – J. en E. Sas – 1302.555988 – 10:16:19
- NL-2025-1315593 – Wolvers - Wolf – 1299.687465 – 10:16:33
- NL-2025-7024570 – Enrico Doldersum – 1299.173366 – 10:16:36
Congratulations to all!
Arrived pigeons: 1,990 (97.1%)
With the second race completed, we have also started calculating the rankings for the Jersey Cup and Ace Pigeon competitions.
You can check the current standings and competition rules here: https://derby.avirings.com/en/Competition