Wittendal - A Barcelona Strain
By Liam O'Comain
Because of the prominence of the Dutch strains in the distance races and those from the land of the sport's origins there is a tendency to ignore or overlook the flying exploits of other countries such as France, for example. Now that is about to be changed for the subject under consideration is an authentic Barcelona ace from the north of France whose name is Christian Wittendal.
Christian Wittendal was involved in the sport since early in his teens for he started racing at sixteen and from the start shared in success. Paddling his own canoe, however, was to end for in time he became the loft manager of the great Robert Sion. Then in the event of Sion's death Wittendal restarted on his own at Wattrelos, a suburb of the city of Tourcoing. There he began to build his family with the precise objective of tackling Barcelona.
As the past loft manager of Sion our subject was in a position of using some Sions at the base of his intended strain. At the start of the 1970's he received a couple of eggs from Leopold Coudou, the hatch resulted in two pigeons of Sion- Commine bloodlines. He also purchased 12 birds from Arthur Taelement who was considered a very good breeder but not a racer. Taelement's pigeons were of the Commine bloodlines and as this strain was a special favourite of Wittendal the latter was confident that he had the right pigeons for what he had in mind.Another addition was a stock hen of Commine- Sion lines purchased by Wittendal at the auction sale of Alberic Desmet of Roubaix.
Thus began a task and a career of tackling the marathon of all marathons by a fancier who eventually produced so many outstanding Barcelona pigeons that Wittendal used the following means of recognition: Le Barcelona 01, followed by Le Barcelona 02, and so on arriving eventually at Le Barcelona 96 for cocks and Le Barcelona 14 for hens. All being birds which scored successfully from Barcelona in the French Nationals. So let us imagine entering the lofts of this Barcelona ace between 1970 and 1990 and observing over 100 pigeons who successfully flew from the Spanish race point, some more than once. For example, Barcelona 22 flew seven times from Barcelona scoring in the Nationals and the Internationals at a distance of 1040 kms. Pigeons who also showed their mettle in races from other race points in the French racing calendar. A sight to behold!
Looking at some French National positions from Barcelona we see that the Wittendals from 1979 until 1990, won the following positions: 26th, 30th, 13th, 17th, 33rd, 18th, 24th, 12th, 2nd, 5th, 1st, and 17th. A fantastic national record based upon a system of widowhood for the cocks and a natural programme for the hens. A colony managed by a master of the sport of long distance pigeon racing, whose success should be acknowledged, for Wittendal's achievements from the Spanish race point puts him at the top of the creme de la creme of the pigeon sporting world. A world in which he won three Nationals and several Gold Medals from the Cureghem Centre via one of the best ultra distance teams ever in the history of the sport and yet, how many of our readers has ever heard of Christian Wittendal and his strain
