Ending auctions: Ivan Baetens, Dimitri Houfflijn, Maarten Huijsmans, FBIBF, One Loft Race special, Jelle Jellema, Tom van Gaver, Vermeerbergen-Wilms-Mostmans & Arie Dijkstra

At the end of the 2017 season, the pigeon sport world was astonished with the discovery of the 'Best Kittel' who just won the title of 1st National Ace Pigeon Sprint KBDB with the smallest coefficient of the history.

Kristof targeted the long distance with a team of yearlings for the first time in 2013, and he has been among the provincial champions at the end of every season since. He has added 7 provincial first prizes to his palmares as well, and let's not forget his title of 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon Extreme Long Distance 2016.

So after a challenging and testing race series within the Derby Arona Tenerife OLR it's mid-march as we head for the penultimate race of the year: the semi final and double island flight and car race three from the island of Fuerteventura.

We reckon most of you are already familiar with golden stock dam 't Goedje or stock pair Perigueux x Corry. They enabled Team Rudi De Saer to get some truly fantastic results over the years. Their descendants continue to boost the international reputation of the modern-day De Saer pigeon.

When the Golden Algarve Race began, it was another derby that would try to assert itself in the world of One Loft Races. But year after year the number of pigeons and participants doubled, all because of the well organized structure.

Maarten Huijsmans is, despite his young age, already a phenomenon at his favorite distances, the sprint and middle distance. In both disciplines he has managed to distinguish himself in a wonderful way at national level.

On Monday March 18th, these auctions will start: Bert Vanden Berghe, Dehon-Demonseau, Hardy Krüger, Rudi de Saer, Etienne Meirlaen, Freialdenhofen & Sons, Franz-Josef Irmer, March auction, Carlo Gyselbrecht, Kristof Mortelmans, Jan Hooymans.

The Joël Verschoot pigeon auction reached an apotheosis on Sunday 18th of March: they smashed the record of most expensive pigeon ever sold in an online auction with an incredible 1,252,000 euro.

As of 2019, direct Hooyman pigeons will be facing opponents in different competitions across Europe: besides the team's private racing loft of Jan Hooymans, we will also see the launch of a "Team Hooymans NL" racing loft in The Netherlands, led by Christian van de Wetering from Wijk en Aalburg.

There is always one star that shines the brightest. They shine harder than all other stars. We introduce to you pigeon fancier Ahmad Majid.

With a national victory on Brive and the best Belgian long distance yearling with 5 prizes (PIPA Rankings), Tom Van Gaver & his father Marnik just passed their first big annual test with a brilliant note. However, it was not a foregone conclusion. Let's go back to an unforgettable year for this combination of the Gent area.

The first edition of OLR Europa Master Pigeons, finished with a spectacular and very hard final. The pigeons had been prepared in 23 trainings, 3 Hot Spots, and 1 semi-final. In total pigeons flew 2411 km.

Friday, March 15, PIPA Middle East will organize an auction in Basra, Iraq. There will be offered a nice collection of Belgian, German and Dutch top pigeons.

Contador was another bird that developed into an absolute champion in the lofts of Joël Verschoot from Ingelmunster, in the wake of Armando. After all, pigeons that win 4 national top 10 prizes in the long distance, like Contador did, are not all that common.

Several auctions closed on Sunday 10th of March, raising 295,300 euro in total for 144 pigeons, or more than 2,000 euro on average per bird.