He missed out on a national championship title last year because of a paperwork error, and like any true sportsman, he was very disappointed. But Stefaan did not ponder too long: "I simply turn the page and I start focusing on the upcoming season instead", he told us last year. And he meant it.Guess who became number one in the 2020 national championships young birds longer middle distance? That's right: Stefaan Lambrechts. This was quite a comeback!
National champion
He won his championship title based on the following results:
- 15-08-2020 CHATEAUROUX 391st & 5th of 20789 pigeons
- 06-09-2020 ARGENTON 128th & 790th of 23280 pigeons
- 22-08-2020 BOURGES 70th & 4983rd of 28551 pigeons
Meanwhile, racing BE20-6014344, which is related to the most important Lambrechts bloodlines, claimed an ace pigeon title this season: 4th provincial ace pigeon longer middle distance + 18th nat cce pigeon longer middle distance, with the following palmares:
49th Chateauroux of 15322 pigeons
22nd Fay Au Loges of 2805 pigeons
482nd Nat Bourges of 28551 pigeons
Another pigeon to play an important role in this national championship title is Casa 86 (BE20-1062086), which is also 3rd national ace pigeon longer middle distance:
3rd Sermaises of 2182 pigeons
70th Nat Bourges of 28551 pigeons
114th Nat Chateauroux of 15322 pigeons
2443rd Nat Argenton of 23280 pigeons
Another pigeon that played an important role is BE20-6014241, winner of:
391ste Nat Chateauroux of 20789 pigeons
82ste Sermaises of 2182 pigeons
4983 Nat Bourges of 28551 pigeons
And racing bird BE20-6014338 was an important factor as well:
212th Nat Bourges of 28551 pigeons
790th Nat Argenton of 23280 pigeons
Geertje...
And the fancier from Nijlen not only excelled with his young birds. His one year old Geertje (BE19-6091121) deserves a mention as well, winning this year's title of 9th National ace pigeon shorter middle distance yearlings based on the following achievements:
2nd Sermaises of 920 pigeons
3rd Sermaises of 439 pigeons
6th Melun of 355 pigeons
19th Sermaises of 3735 pigeons
"This pigeon is a rather special one", Stefaan told us. "Bart and Nance Van Oeckel had obtained this pigeon from Geert Lambrechts, but the pigeon mistakenly flew to the lofts in Nijlen. That happened twice. Bart and Nance came over to pick up their pigeon but we eventually agreed to just keep the pigeon here. He was rather unsuccessful as a young bird but I decided to keep him anyway, because of this story. In a way, I still believed in this pigeon. He started to do well in his second race and he has never failed since", Stefaan says with a big smile.
Other fanciers...
It is something we hear quite often in pigeon racing: you can win the respect of other fanciers if you perform very well but they will respect you even more if other players achieve great results with your bloodlines. Stefaan Lambrechts receives several references every year, and 2020 was no different. For instance, Chris de Backer and Koen van Roy claimed a 1st provincial with a 50% Lambrecht, in the same weekend that Stefaan won his 1st provincial Chateauroux. And the 5th ace pigeon in the Algarve was a 50% Lambrechts descendant as well. Or how about the 5th + 9th national ace pigeon of Eijerkamp?
And we end this article with a short quiz. Who claimed the most national top 100 spots with the young birds across 2018, 2019 and 2020? That's right, Stefaan Lambrechts.