Swart wins both Riverpark pigeon races

ON Saturday, Gauteng Pigeon Union (GPU) liberated the pigeons from Bloemfontein in the Free State in a combined liberation with seven other unions/federations.

This was an average distance of 390km for Riverpark Pigeon Club (RPC) members and, once again, north east and north west head winds were blowing.

RPC had 15 members flying 219 pigeons in the young bird race and the top 30 positions on the result sheet took 15 minutes and four seconds to fill. The young birds were liberated at 7.30am and had a nett flying time of four hours 52 minutes and 51 seconds to get to the loft.

Seventeen members flew 269 birds in the open race and the pigeons were liberated at 8.15am. The open birds had a nett flying time of four hours 41 minutes and 48 seconds – a quicker race than the young birds. The open birds took 12 minutes to fill the top 30 positions on the result sheet.

And now for the interesting part: Unfortunately, this scribe only has race records going back to the 2014 race season so could not verify when last such an occurrence happened at Riverpark. The club had one member winning both the young bird and open race, namely Blackie Swart, who was first and second in the young bird race and won the open race by 30 seconds from Pieter van den Broeck.

Swart is 13th in the union with the young bird win and ninth in the union with the open race result.

The results for the young birds were:

Blackie Swart 1st, 2nd and 30th; Sky Lofts (Corrie Möller) 3rd and 5th; Le Roux Lofts (Pieter le Roux) 4th, 6th, 11th, 12th, 15th, 23rd and 24th; Tallies Lofts (Jan Taljaard) 7th, 13th, 14th and 21st; Hilton Pitout 8th, 9th, 18th and 20th; Fred van Rensburg 10th and 22nd; Doves Nest Guest House (Gawie Botha) 16th; Albert Neilson 17th; Pieter van den Broeck 19th and 28th; Flip van Staden 25th and 26th; Reinhold Brichta 27th and Knoesen Lofts (Attie Knoesen) 29th.

Open race results:

Blackie Swart 1st, 8th, 16th, 26th and 28th; Pieter van den Broeck 2nd and 13th; G & E Lofts (Graham Cheary & Elaine Russell) 3rd; Doves Nest Guest House (Gawie Botha) 4th, 15th, 22nd and 27th; Hilton Pitout 5th, 17th, 18th and 21st; Pine Pienaar 6th, 10th, 14th and 30th; Tallies Loft (Jan Taljaard) 7th, 11th, 12th and 20th; Henry Mostert 9th and 29th; Flip van Staden 19th; Le Roux Lofts (Pieter le Roux) 23rd; Reinhold Brichta 24th and Knoesen Lofts (Attie Knoesen) 25th.

This week the pigeons will be liberated from Dewetsdorp in the Free State, which is an average distance of 415km for RPC members.