One season later, in 2010, he was 4th German champion in the region, after finishing 6th in 2007. He won eight first prizes over ten races and his pigeons manage to finish at the top every time. He is a man to reckon with.
Who is Tino Bergemann and where does he come from? He is 48 years old which makes him a relatively young pigeon fancier. He lives in Mittenwalde, a city in Bundesland Brandenburg. Mittenwalde is located 35km away from Berlin. This city had 8,663 inhabitants in December 2012 and one of them is Tino Bergemann. He is a skilled bricklayer and today he works as a caretaker, while also running a small feed company.
Tino Bergemann competes in the RV Königs-Wusterhausen, which is part of the regional union 351 Berlin-Brandenburg-Nord-Ost.
Key to success
Accuracy, consistency and discipline, as well as a top class pigeon collection are the key factors for success in this loft. He asks a lot from his pigeons and he is unforgiving. The caretaking of his pigeons takes place at exactly the same time every day, not only in the summer months but throughout the year. He thinks it is important to be consistent in your approach.
All pigeons (his yearlings and of course the old birds) complete the same programme. Tino Bergemann attaches more importance to ace points than to the number of prizes won. This is his philosophy: a pigeon that wins prizes regularly without winning top prizes has no value in a championship. That is why Tino is constantly looking for very talented pigeons and true champions. He has been winning top prizes in the national ace championships every season, which shows that he knows where to find such pigeons. He has not had a single season without finishing first. His results with his old birds are remarkable as well, with, for instance, a national victory with a three year old hen. We see in many lofts that pigeons are sometimes past their best already at the age of two. It seems that Tino takes great care of his pigeons and it shows that his pigeon breed is of excellent quality. Another thing to consider is that he is very selective in composing his old bird team, contrary to his young birds. That is because he has seen many pigeons develop into excellent racing pigeons after a disappointing season as a yearling and this also explains the large group of yearlings in his widowhood loft. This seems contradictory to the strict selection of young birds that we witness in many lofts. However, most of these fanciers happen to be successful with their young birds only. Imagine how many future champions they might have thrown out because they were not successful enough as young birds?
Results of 2013: 8 first prizes in 10 old birds' races!
10 races have been completed in the RV; the weather conditions did not allow for additional flights. The season started on 11 May in Wolfsburg (183km), where Tino has won 49 prizes with 65 basketed pigeons against 1,023 pigeons in the RV. His best pigeons finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 6th and 8th.
965 pigeons were basketed in the RV for the second flight from Wolfsburg one week later and Tino won 49 prizes with 59 pigeons (83.1%), including a first and second prize. Some might think that there is not a lot of competition in this RV but the opposite is true. Let’s take a look at the next race from Minden (327km).
816 pigeons had been basketed for Minden in the RV and Tino has won 48 prizes with 60 pigeons (80%), taking another first prize. He also managed to win a 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th and 10th prize in the region against 8,403 pigeons. In fact he managed to win a total of 35 prizes per ten.
The fourth race in the RV took place in Hamm (409km). 7,292 pigeons had been basketed in the region and he has won 51 prizes with 58 basketed pigeons (87.9%), including a 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and a 36th prize per ten.
His pigeons performed even better in the 8th race of the season from Recklingshausen (458km). Timo had basketed 40 pigeons, 38 of which have won a prize (95%). He has also won a 4th, 6th, 6th, 9th and 10th prize against 4,314 pigeons in the region.
The national race from Bergen-op-Zoom (659km) took place on 13 July 2013, with 11,528 pigeons being basketed at national level. The overall result was less impressive with 19 prizes from 40 basketed pigeons (47.5%) but Timo managed to win an impressive national first prize with his chequered hen 04715-10-1025!
The tenth and final race of the season took place in Minden, with 3,576 pigeons in the region. All 30 pigeons from Timo’s loft have won a prize, which means he had a prize percentage of 100%. His pigeons finished in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th prize in the region, which is quite impressive!
He had a prize percentage of 73.5% after ten races, which is an amazing result. It is a shame that only 10 races could take place this season.
04715-10-1025, the national winner
The hen 04715-10-1025 landed on the board at 16:06‘37“, winning the first national prize from Bergen-op-Zoom. She won the national race with a velocity of 1,328 m/min in rather difficult weather conditions. There was a slight northeast wind that made this a difficult race for most pigeons. Two RVs with 447 members participated in the race and there were a total of 11,528 pigeons in the race. The fanciers from the two RVs were spread out over the entire bundesland of Brandenburg. There were quite a lot of opponents and a lot of pigeons in the race. The winning pigeon 1025 has won 8 prizes in 10 races this season, which resulted in 522 ace points.
Samson
Breeding pigeons
A large part of his pigeons originate from Bernd Haas, a very good friend of Tino. He has also obtained pigeons from Hans Hirn and there are several Van Koppen pigeons in his loft as well. Cees van Koppen is a good friend and it is not surprising that Tino has obtained several excellent pigeons from him. This is the breeding basis of this loft. Tino obviously has a few other bloodlines in his loft as well.
This is an impressive collection of breeding pigeons and it is difficult to pick out a few to discuss in detail. I would like to start with Samson B 99-4099260. This pigeon originates from Samson & Sohn and he has become an outstanding breeder in this loft. The sire of Samson is the B 92-4188003, winner of 121 prizes in 6 seasons, including 26 victories. These are the type of pigeons Tino Bergermann is looking for. Samson has bred excellent descendants with different partners.
Sohn Bernie, successful both in the racing and the breeding loft
I would like to discuss an even better breeding pigeon. The 04115-05-770 is a son of Bernie 0645-03-1789 (Sohn Bernie), a cock of Bernd Haas. The sire of Bernie is a brother of Eurostar of M. & C. Van Koppen, which is another descendant of Real King x Blue Queen. This Bruder Eurostar was paired to a grandson of Zitter (C. & G. Koopman). The dam of Sohn Bernie is the 0645-03-1734 of Bernd Haas and the sire is a grandson of Eric of C. & G. Koopman. I think this tells the whole story. This Sohn Bernie has turned into an excellent breeding cock; his youngsters have been winning several top prizes and victories.
The 590 ist another top class breeder!
This was a brief introduction to an impressive loft. What do you think of the achievements of Tino Bergermann and his pigeons?