Race: Final race (521.08 km)

AviRings Derby's final race 2023 was a real success. We basketed 826 pigeons and brought them to the city of Tiszabcezs on the Hungarian-Ukrainian border, air distance of 521 km. Participants could watch the AviRings truck moving towards the point of release in the live stream via GPS-tracker for trucks.

The drivers came around 02:00 to the point of release, so the pigeons had enough time to sleep and relax before the release. We liberated the birds at 08:15. It was nice clear weather and the birds start immediately in the right direction.

AviRings pigeons made 1750 km in the official 6 races, while more than ten shorter 40km training sessions and 80km longer were organized. Of the accepted 2100 pigeons, 1/3 are from Holland, followed by pigeons from Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Italy, as well as from Denmark and Northern Ireland we have representatives.

This season has been the toughest in our short history so that the victory will be all the sweeter.

At AviRings loft gathered almost 200 people to wait for the pigeons. Participants came from Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

We were surprised by the first group; nobody expected pigeons so early. The first pigeon by Pleiter-Kolkman NL-2023-9093893 Avi 93 was clocked at 14:33 with a speed of 1378m/min. Second place won PIPA Elit Center BE-2023-4163190 and third Tone Čebašek from Slovenia with pigeon SLO-2023-108-9208. It was even bigger surprise when we noticed that the winner was second in the semifinal race – which is just a remarkable result for the nice blue hen.

Pigeons were coming; seeing the group of 10 and even more pigeons coming together from this distance was amazing. At the end of the day, 455 pigeons out of 826 were at home. The next morning, an additional 221 pigeons came—a remarkable result which we had never before. Pigeons were top prepared, they had gathered a lot of experience in other hard races before, especially in the semifinal, and not at least all other circumstances (no fog, not too strong wind) were on our side this time.

We are even more sure that our pigeons, which came from the best European fanciers and go through a very hard AviRings program and “survive” also the final race, can fly a 600km race. We will organize 600 race in a good week time. Let the best “long-distances” pigeons get the chance to prove themselves.

We congratulate the big winners:

1. Pleiter-Kolkman NL-2023-9093893 Avi 93

2. PIPA Elit Center BE-2023-4163190

3. Tone Čebašek SLO-2023-108-9208

4. WINGS 2 WIN; DV-2023-08609-84

5. Team Sjoerd Lei & Vetri Maaran NL-2023-9553047

6. Marco Gratzer AUT-2023-609-2

7. Gert Rotman NL-2023-4630560

8. Tamas Wagner HU-2023-14-74259

9. Simon Hozjan SLO-2023-114-1202

10. Team Lucky Looser DV-2023-06967-1002

All birds coming from 520km deserve respect and their owners have confirmation for working in the right direction. Bravo!

A few days after the final race ……

Gerrit Pleiter was extremely happy in a hard semi-final race as his pigeon won 2nd place. That was already a great success, which he didn’t expect. Two weeks later, as his pigeon popped up on the screen again, this time even as the winner, he was shocked! That couldn't be true, he thought it is a fairy tale.

It is very true, and is not a dream, not even a fairy tale; it is just a very good pigeon, probably the very best one we experienced on the OLR racing in recent years worldwide!!!

NL-9093893 won the last two races within 0,2% on average against 1074 pigeons!!!

Participants of the AviRings Derby know how different these two races were. The semifinal of 400km was very hard, with the speed of the first pigeon under 930m/min and the final race of 521 km with a speed of 1370 m/min. But the best pigeons can make it in all kinds of conditions. NL-9093893 won also 1st 3-races CUP. Bravo.

Gerrit decided to go to Slovenia to AviRings Derby and visit his pigeon before it will be sold on PIPA auction. He drove 13 hours with his wife to Slovenia, only to see his beloved Miss Avi-93. It was a very emotional visit and we were happy to witness those moments.

Dear Gerrit, congratulations again for the amazing win!

We hope you enjoyed the season 2023 with us. We have ideas and suggestions on how to improve our services 2024, but first, we have to organize the Ultimate 600 race.