1° General national champion KBDB 2006
1° national champion long distance KBDB 2006
Marcel & Mrs. Celine Aelbrecht
Lebbeke : Marcel Aelbrecht, 79 years old, was once more the very top of Belgian pigeon sport in 2006. It is truly incredible the way Marcel has been achieving absolutely stunning results over the past few years and how he is condemning the competition in the national championships to a second position. For 9 years in a row already, Marcel has been omnipresent in the national championships. He is without a doubt the most honoured Belgian fancier of the last few years. Let’s go through the most important facts:
2005: 1° general champion KBDB – 3° general champion extreme long distance KBDB – 4° general champion fond KBDB
2006: 1° general champion KBDB – 1° champion long distance KBDBThe things many hope for and dream about but never accomplish, seem customary to Marcel. This has to be a mega loft!! But no, it isn’t!! Marcel can undoubtedly be considered as one of the “smaller” fanciers by which I mean the number of pigeons of course, I am not talking about performances. The Aelbrecht loft consists of 19 widowers (13 old and 6 yearlings), about forty breeders and approximately 60 youngsters. Marcel is clearly honouring quality instead of quantity.
Care is important too and luckily, there’s Marcel’s wife Celine to help him out because his health is sometimes beginning to fail.
1° general champion KBDB: 8 national races count for this championship with the first nominated pigeon, among which 2 races for juniors and 1 race for yearlings, furthermore: 5 races for old pigeons of which 2 extreme long distance races.
The Aelbrecht loft was the primus this year with the following results:
Barcelona 244 national, Carcassone 156 national, Limoges 50 zonal, Cahors 18 zonal, Souillac 12 zonal, Limoges yearlings 45 zonal, Bourges youngsters 495 national and La Souterraine youngsters 248 national. This results in a coefficient of 13,7228, an achievement that leaves the competition way behind because the fancier in second position obtained a coefficient of no less than 27.
1° champion long distance KBDB: this is a championship for old pigeons with 1 + 2 nominated pigeons in 3 national races that can be chosen from 7 potential races.
He has obtained the following results:
Limoges 50 and 42 zonal, Cahors 18 and 71 zonal and Souillac 12 and 15 zonal. Coefficient 9,1072. Contrary to the general championship this was a real sprint right until the end. The title was won with a very small difference, the coefficient of the second one was 9,1952. Juicy detail: the same loft (Houfflijn Patrick & Dimitri) ended in the Poulidor position in both cases.
Quality.
The quality of the pigeon is the most important weapon of a fancier. It is been known for a while now that the Aelbrecht breed is based on pigeons of De Rauw-Sablon. Pigeons of neighbour Frans Sablon moved to the lofts of Aelbrecht on a regular basis. Marcel managed to select his own stars from this strain. Pretty much all pigeons have blood of “De Marseille” or “de vader van de asduif 2003” (father of the ace pigeon of 2003) running through their veins. These two pigeons can safely be called the ancestors of the present generation of Aelbrecht champion pigeons.
Championships of 2006
Marcel did not just obtain nice results in the national KBDB championships, he ended in the top of many other championships as well. These are just some of the many successes he achieved in 2006:
1° champion long distance ‘Entente Belge’
4° general champion ‘Entente Belge’
1° + 3° ace pigeon long distance old FCD
2° champion long distance 1+2 FCD old and yearlings
1° national champion ‘Duivenblad’ long distance
1° and 2° ace pigeon long distance ‘land van Aalst’
1° general champion 1+2 ‘land van Aalst’
1° Steeple chase cup 1+2
3° champion leaders
3° Champions league old pigeons
2° star of the juniors 1+2
1° best loft ‘Duivenkrant’
1° all-round ‘Duivenkrant’
It’s better to wear out than to rust out:
One has to have real top pigeons in his loft to achieve such results year after year with such a small number of pigeons. Selection is an important factor in Marcel’s success. His pigeons are very well prepared but they are also really put to the test. All the pigeons participate in a great number of races and each year, they have to prove themselves once more. To illustrate this, we asked Marcel to provide us all the results achieved by one single “typical” Aelbrecht pigeon: Part 1 – Part 2