Marijn Laureyns from Kleit (BE)
Maldegem, Kleit a small rural hamlet in the meetjesland. The meetjesland is a region in the north west of the province East- Flanders. It adjoins in the north to the Dutch Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, in the west to the province West-Vlaanderen and in the east and south to the region Ghent. A region that contains about 40 municipalities. In this area they treat the pigeon sport seriously. Lat year we also visited Marijn Laureyns and talked about his remarkable results. In his own words, this year was a terrible year for him. He wasn't spared any setbacks and nearly every week something happened to make him want to stop. Despite everything and after adding up the points he was East Flemish provincial champion and for the 3rd time in a row he was general
"Champion of the Meetjesland". Because he has won this championship for 3 times in a row, he will be crowned
"Emporer of the Meetjesland". He remains calm about everything and is not one to boast.
Setbacks and East Flemish general champion 2007...
Even though he was general champion, Marijn is not satisfied with his season where he definitely wasn't spared any setbacks. The 486/05 returned wounded from his first race and couldn't race for the rest of the season.
Last year he raced from Clermont 5/ 205, Ablis 1/ 313, Bourges 6/280, La Souterainne 1/ 135 and Limoges nat. 7/ 15.507.
After the 2nd Ablis it was miss yet again because the 2 best racing pigeons both returned wounded, then a group of youngsters flew nto the high voltage wires with the result that a few died, and later the 2 best youngsters were found underneath the pylons in Sleidinge, if you also take into account the fact that a bird of prey managed to enter the aviary and wreaked havoc then you can understand that things hadn't gone well for Marijn. The provincial title was achieved through 4 classifications in the provincial championships. He was 24th in the Middle Distance old pigeons, 8th in the Long Distance championships with 5 prizes, 21st in the Middle Distance for youngsters and 14th in the sprint races for yongsters.
General champion of the Meetjesland
Marijn attaches a lot of value on this championship. This is a championship that is organised every year by "De Vriendenkring van het Meetjesland" for the fanciers from 40 municipalities. The disciplines sprint, middle distance and long distance are raced and in every discipline there is a championship with 1st + 2nd nominated pigeons, an ace pigeon old birds and an ace pigeon young birds. Whoever manages to classify best in all these disciplines is declared general champion. In 8 years, Marijn was crowned general champion 6 times. This year it is for the third time in a row that he is genral champion so that this year he can climb the podium as "Emporer". It is obvious that only an all-rounder as Marijn can win this championship because you have to be able to win prizes from 50km to 1000km.
The strains
Even though there is raced here at a very high level, it is amazing that there have been so few pedigrees and strains bought over the years. He only couples and crosses a few pigeons with his old strain that is based on pigeons from Filip De Muynck from Eeklo.
The attained pigeons are put to the test and have to be a good acquisition for the loft. This is probably why only a few pigeons manage to gain a place in the breeding loft "Laureyns". The pigeons hat have been crossed successfully are from Marnix De Decker from Assenede, Schoors-Dewaele from Adegem, Antoine Timmerman from Knesselare, Raymond Cromheecke from Maldegem and Germain Van Landschoot from Maldegem.
A few first-rate results
Here a selection of the first-rate results that we were allowed to see by the "Laureyns".
Arras 1078 youngsters: 1., 2., 5., 8., 9., 19., 20.,
(44/52)
Arras 342 youngsters: 2., 3., 5., 12., 12., 15., 16., 18., 20., 25., 26., 38., 39,
(41/54).
Arras 274 youngsters: 2., 5., 6., 15., 16., 17., 18., 19., 20.,
(36/52)
Arras 181 youngsters: 1., 6., 7., 8., 10., 11., 12.,
(20/24)
Arras 434 youngsters: 1., 10., 26., 35., 40.,
(12/19)
Arras 271 youngsters: 2., 10., 12., 17. en 19 (5/5)
Momignies 693 youngsters: 2., 9., 20., 32.,
(31/41)
Duddelange 506 youngsters: 1., 6., 11., 19., 22., 23.,
(23/33)
Clermont 715 youngsters: 11., 25., 27., 32., 69., 71., 77.,
(25/35)
Clermont 237 youngsters: 3., 7., 8., 9., 12., 14.,
(22/28)
Clermont 1532 youngsters: 7., 10.,
(11/12)
Ablis 376 youngsters: 7., 12., 21., 40., 43.,
(9/1)
Brionne 513 youngsters: 5., 6., 12., 23., 27.,
(11/12)
Argenton 348 youngsters: 1., 3. (2/3)
Arras 183 yearlings: 4., 10. en 14 (3/3)
Clermont 438 yearlings: 5., 13 en 36 (3/3)
Ablis 275 yearlings: 1. (1/2)
Chateauroux 238 yearlings: 2 (1/4)
Chateauroux 161 yearlings: 4., 15. (4/4)
Nantes 105 old: 2., 3. (2/4)
Chateauroux 66 old: 1. (1/1)
Bourges 184 old: 1. and 6 (2/2)