Marathon And Long Distance Pigeon Racing
‘Nellie’ Wins The 2009 Barcelona International
By Liam O’Comain
On Saturday July the 12th 2009, the van Houten family from Ijsselstein in Holland became the latest winners of the greatest pigeon race in the world. For on that date a chequer pied hen called ‘Nellie’ led the long way from Spain to win the race for brothers Wim and Martin. Rung NL 05- 1111734, this great flying athlete of mainly van Geel bloodlines won the ‘marathon of all marathons’ from an entry of 27,627 pigeons being clocked at 10h39hrs. In this race the brothers clocked 6 from an entry of 9. Their times of arrival were as follows: 14h19, 15h36, 17h35, 18h46, 19h19 and this from a distance of more than 1,200km which resulted in the following prizes at national level in an entry of 8,042 pigeons: 1-118-315-658… and 6/ 9. Martin and Wim have another brother, Koos, who races from his own loft but the brothers have a collective breeding loft of approximately 10 pairs, which stands in the garden of their father Kees. Incidentally Koos finished 20th Dutch National in the same Barcelona classic.
The brothers
The van Houtens started in the sport in 1982 when they obtained some birds from Frans van Loenhout in Nieuw-Vossemeer. At the time the latter was a handyman for Marijn Van Geel, and was able to obtain the best of the Van Geels. ‘Nellie’ is 75% of the van Geel ‘Dolle’ bloodlines. The combination house about 60 birds and they base themselves on the principles of racing and performance. Other bloodlines were obtained from Herry Peters from Panheel, and Gerard van Tuyl (winner 1st International Barcelona 2007) plus Martin Vinckenborg from Volendam. In 2008 the latter pigeoner had the best Barcelona pigeon in Holland over 5 years.
Nellie
Other recent van Houten successes (including Koos) are as follows:
29/5 Limoges National 13,195 pigeons. 3-33-77-79… and 20/ 38 (per 4)
Koos also won here 20th National and achieved 14/19.
12/6 St.Vincent National 6,765 pigeons. 17-96-153… and 8/25 (per 4)
29/6 Bordeaux National 5,183 pigeons. 45-72-96… and 6/8
03/7 Montauban National 5,524 pigeons. 162-286… and ¾In recent years other fanciers have succeeded with the van Houten bloodlines on the continent of Europe.
Well done ‘Nellie’ and well done lads! Once again the Netherlands have shown the way in the Olympics of long distance and marathon pigeon racing.
