Barcelona International
It’s that time of year again!
Yes, it’s the Barcelona Dream prestigious long distance marathon race which is just around the corner.
Many fanciers dream the dream of racing this race, very few live the dream by actually sending their birds.
There’s a myriad of reasons given not to participate but only one good reason to do it and this is You’ve got to be in it to win it! You’ll never know if you don’t try.
The most prevalent reason I’ve witnessed the stumbling block call it what you want is not the pigeons but you the fancier. This may be a bitter pill to swallow the Barcelona race is won or lost within your mind. I’ll explain you source your birds usually bred down from previous stock that have excelled from your target race in this case Barcelona but to be honest with some fanciers it could be any distance. Instead of racing these they become your trophy and you gleefully worship at their alter and maximize your bragging rights. Because of this and your inevitable financial monetary expenditure you have created your own mental block in actually trying your bird in fear of losing it especially from races that test it’s potential. The only way as stated above is to send it and see. Here’s a couple of examples of fanciers that did just that, one that lived the dream and one in waiting.
We’ll start first with the great long distance marathon fancier Jim Emerton. Now I know some will contest my opening statement and I’ll quantify why I say this because there is and has been lots of great fanciers over the years that have excelled at Barcelona and all respect to them. Simply put, Jim lived his dream by racing Barcelona International and he and his pigeon still holds the BICC record for the longest flying bird recorded in race time at a distance of 879 miles in the history of BICC with his bird Barcelona Dream. Being the sportsman Jim is to encourage other fanciers, he sponsors the BICC Barcelona International race with three trophies. The Jim Emerton trophy longest flying bird in race time, the Jim Emerton Barcelona Dream trophy highest velocity over 750 miles and the Jim Emerton Mensa trophy for the 2 bird average at Barcelona the trophies are solid silver salves at £3,500 and are perpetual.
Jim Emerton lived his dream and supports others today to live theirs.
Moving away from Jim Emerton, although Jim supports my second example, we move on to another phenomenal long distance marathon racing fancier one man which I’m sure you all will have heard of through his media presence helping others and sharing his methods and this is David Reynolds Dandilofts in Germany. David is another true gentleman sportsman fancier who’s dream and hopefully his reality is to crack Barcelona International at 1004 miles in race time. David has tried before and had returns from this race but just out of race time. David is a man who is totally dedicated and passionate about his birds after all there’s not many fanciers would travel seven hours to marking and seven hours back stopping to feed and water his candidates making sure that they are in the best possible condition for the race. This does put a lot of things into context when it comes to maximizing your chances of success. Not only that David has been completing a daily vlog on his preparations called Barcelona or Bust and you can go to his YouTube and Facebook page to view it all at David Reynolds Dandilofts. No secrets, only good solid sound information from a successful fancier who is passionate about our sport and his pigeons.
Well I hope my little article has provoked and stimulated your inquisitive minds to at least look into the subject of long distance marathon racing, namely the pinnacle of our wonderful sport of racing pigeons Barcelona International.
Good luck to all those brave fanciers that send and their brave birds. Here’s to a great race and may all your dreams come true.
Believe in yourself, Believe in your birds they can do it.
Can you?
Yours in Sport
Dave Bunker Brierley
