Abroad (25-04-23)

He will certainly not have had any bad intentions, but of course he was wrong when that editor-in-chief once wrote that our sport was on the rise in Poland and Romania.
People who have contacts there know better. Pigeon sport has been popular in those countries for years, but a large number of members have quit.
Like in Japan, Taiwan and China, although many media would have you believe otherwise. Last winter I received 3 emails from America about the same subject.
One club after the other stopped organizing flights. Many fanciers now only keep pigeons for O L races.
And they all agree on who, as they call it, destroy pigeon sport there: M G, an American dealer who asks prices that the common man can never afford, and a well-known European sales site.

WELL

Is it all doom and gloom then? Certainly not. Earlier I mentioned that in Guadalajara (urban) there are (young bird) competitions of 35,000 pigeons.
Those numbers, according to Mr. Barj sometimes also meets in, don't be shocked, Morocco. Also according to Mr. Barj, many young people would join there every year.
As in Bangla Desh, by the way, another country where one would not expect that. In Iran 'the sport is also emerging', but people practice it like here 150 years ago. The focus there is on the long distance, in Morocco more on races of 300 to 500 km.

DUTCH

In Sport magazine 'De Duif' was a report about the National Champion of Belgium in the extreme long distance. It would have surprisingh if it were otherwise, but the top pigeons of that man (Eddy Cardon) come from Dutch pigeons.
Something that is more the rule than the exception for Belgian long distance champions.
And what about in Belgium on flights of 400 to 600 km? How are Dutch pigeons doing there? I better shut up about that. Otherwise there will be another bomb under my bed…