Marijke had, if my memory serves me right, moved to a larger property In Klaaswaal in December 1994 the purchase of which, at that time, had been made possible by the sale of a key legendary pigeon plus the race team. Or at least that is how my host and good friend Joop had explained it to me. That year 1996 she was, a.o. 1st Strombeek 6.017 p., 1st Peronne 7.658 p., 1st St. Ghislain 2.980 p., 1st Etampes 4.886 p. (2nd 16.124 p.) 1st Nat. Creil 17.435 p. And once again champion district 3. The Vink story is really the stuff of “fairy tales” or “legends” after all how many women have ever become truly internationally recognized in the racing pigeon sport.
So just how did this story all begin? Well it seems that Marijke’ s husband, Henk, a long time pigeon fancier had tried for years to compete and had become discouraged with his lack of success and had therefore decided to end his racing career. Confronted with this reality Marijke decided to take over the responsibility for both racing and breeding and together with her husband devised a new plan to reach the top. Quality pigeons are essential (and even more so for a small team flier who wishes to compete against the established professionals) without them you do not stand a chance in the competitive world of international pigeon racing! Marijke concluded that quality pigeons were absolutely essential and therefore she set about to do considerable research on precisely what pigeons she should purchase and after doing so decided that she would place her confidence and future in the pigeons of C&G Koopman and so it was that in 1989 she arranged to purchase 22 eggs from the Koopmans widowhood team. Of these, 20 youngsters were raced and with great success I might add. Twenty two years have passed since Marijke made the plunge and she has remained the “Queen” of the sport for those many years. To say that what she achieved is incredible would be an understatement!
Hans Jansen
We now fast forward our story to 2004 where a middle aged CPA by the name of Hans Jansen had also become very serious about the sport of racing pigeons and his desire was clearly the desire to compete with the very best fanciers and work to become also one of the very best fanciers in Holland. No easy task I assure you. But then Hans Jansen was far from the average fancier. Born in the village of Geldrop on April 16 1961 to father Rein Jansen and mother Jo Jansen he grew up with a fascination for all animals including dogs, horses and most especially birds. His education was of a financial nature that eventually led to his certification as a CPA. This accounting background serves him well as the “Controller “of a large “IT” company. A CPA spends a great deal of his time focusing on facts, research and analysis dedicated to achieving results. So Hans Jansen is definitely by osmosis and training “results” oriented in all that he does most especially in the area of his racing pigeon pursuits and his detail oriented training has indeed served him well when it comes to racing pigeons where the difference between Champion and also rand is the “detail” the “little details”{!.
Geldrop
Geldrop is a small town located in the south of the Dutch province Noord-Brabant. This small town is close to another small-town, Mierlo, and from 2004 they have both belonged to the same municipality, Geldrop-Mierlo. Close to Mierlo and Geldrop is a major city; Eindhoven.
Geldrop is a small peaceful industrial town of about 30 000 inhabitants.
Geldrop is home to Strabrecht College that has some 1500 students in attendance. Additionally it is known for its flour mill called “t Nupke”, which was build in 1843, and it is still use today. The flour mill an old castle built in 1616 and a famous nature reserve called Strabreichtse Heide filled with moors, lakes and birds.
http://www.schooljournals.net/wai16/media/Travellog.pdf
Hans certainly comes to the sport with a heritage cultivated by his Grandfather who was good fancier in the early 1960's and its very interesting to note that after his Grandfathers birds were poisoned he sold the surviving birds to the later internationally famous fanciers Gebr Smeulders from Nuenen. Hans’s father during these years raced together with his grandfather.
Hans Jansen in front of his meticulously maintained loft.
By 1975 Hans’s father restarted with racing pigeons and at that time Hans also became extremely interested in the sport. He was serious from 1976 until 1985 but due to his studies and his advancing career he was unable to focus on racing as he would have wished. He was once again in a position to seriously focus on racing after 2004. Once the decision to begin again in a very serious fashion he spent a great deal of time researching the results of the most competitive fanciers in Europe and their birds. I had wondered how it was that he came to focus on the racing pigeons of Marijke Vink. Hans replied to my question as follows:
“I contacted her after I decided to pick up serious racing again after I made a career switch to controller. As an ERP-consultant I traveled approximately 100.000 km a year, so there was no serious time to keep pigeons left. Marijke Vink and Pieter Veenstra where the lofts that had my interest because of the results and origin of the birds. Both had the same basic strain. Perhaps at that time the results of Marijke Vink was the better one keeping in mind the number of pigeons.”
Hans first visited Marijke and Henk Vink in 2004 and his main goal at the time was to gain an understanding of the type of people they were and how they managed their birds. The quality of the Vink pigeons was impressive to say the least. Needless to say Marijke Vink made a great impression on Hans and after careful consideration he decided that his future success would be tied to the Marijke Vink pigeons.
Once Hans had decided he quickly proceeded to purchase an entire round of 2005 youngsters from all of Marijke Vinks’ breeders. Interesting to note that this occurred in 2005 before the auction of the Vink pigeons. In this fashion Hans assured himself that he would have a representation of her very best pigeons. In essence he succeeded to purchase the genetic equivalent of her entire proven family before the dispersal. It was now up to Hans Jansen to prove, via his own future results, that he had made the right choice. And prove it he certainly did.
Marijke and Henk Vink 22 years on top moving from strength to greater strength.
The base line that Hans has maintained is that of the Marijke Vink line, and these pigeons are kept as a family and their children are crossed with the lines of A&W Drapa (Germany), Benny Stevenick (Belgium) and G. Lindelauf (Holland).Clearly, Hans, employs a system that includes inbreeding, linebreeding and out crossing..Inbreed and line breed to maintain the family and outcross to gain hybrid vigor for racing. Simple enough formula but very difficult to successfully implement in practice. Selection is the critical key in both breeding and racing and the search for new and ever more successful pigeons or families of pigeons must be ongoing if any fancier is to maintain his success for generations.
Hans’s complete operation consists of 50 breeders, some 60-80 youngsters and about 60 pigeons on total widowhood. The most important foundations birds that were purchased from Marijke Vink include a brother to “Tips”, a brother to “Reza” as well as a daughter to “Reza” a son and daughter to “Inteeltje” sisters to “Merlijn and “150” ( both daughters of “Aladin”).
“NESRIN”
NL03-1116423 - “Nesrin”
Super breeder! Direct son to ‘Aladin’ X ‘Last lady’!
Full brother to ‘Tips’!
“Nesrin” is father & grandfather to a.o.:
1st prize Chantilly against 3.890 pigeons
1st prize Epehy against 3.612 pigeons
1st prize Creil against 1.590 pigeons
1st prize Creil against 550 pigeons
1st prize Nanteuil against 434 pigeons
1st prize Chimay against 285 pigeons
1st prize Menen against 217 pigeons
1st prize Moeskroen against 159 pigeons
1st prize Chimay against 243 pigeons
1st prize Chimay against 129 pigeons
These are only 1st prizes! There are a lot of more topprizes won by (gr-)children of “Nesrin”
“TAJ”
NL05-1375959 “Taj”
Very good breeder! Full brtother to ‘Farah Diba & ‘Reza’
Direct son to ‘Tips ’ X ‘Geschelpt Kanibaaltje’
“Taj” is father & grandfather to a.o.:
1st prize Nanteuil against 3.516 pigeons
1st prize Epehy against 1.561 pigeons
2nd prize Epehy against 1.070 pigeons
4th prize Peronne against 454 pigeons
5th prize Peronne against 3.076 pigeons
5th prize Nanteuil against 1.788 pigeons
“TRINITY”
'Trinity” Middle Distance Champion 2008
As can be seen from the above references that have been achieved by Hans in just a few short years his original research and selection of these Marijke Vink pigeons was indeed well warranted. The results are indeed impressive and it is only the beginning. These results only once again go to strengthen the truth of the matter and that is that success can only come at this level with “Quality” and as Freddy Vandenheede is fond of saying “Quality pigeons make master breeders”. Well done Hans and I look forward to you and your birds moving from strength to ever greater strength!