In 2008, Harco Poelman (46) formed a tandem with his father Ep under the name Comb. Poelman, still using the old line of his father, namely the world-famous 'Black Power' line. Since Ep's passing in 2017, his wife helped care for the pigeons, and a shift was made towards the long-distance races. “Due to my illness MT (Spinal Cord Injury), it is physically too demanding to go 100% for the programmed flights. The marathon was the logical choice for us. We aimed for the marathon races from 800 km to 1300 km,” said Harco. There was plenty of investment and selection focused on these flights, but ultimately a decision was made to sell all the pigeons. This marks the end of this colony, and promising pigeons will be auctioned off, undoubtedly seizing their chance in other lofts.
The showcase pigeon in this auction is undoubtedly "Mister Ruffec" 1st NPO Ruffec 891 km!
He clocked in as a night flyer at 1:36 AM and secured the victory against 1,448 pigeons. Mister Ruffec has already fathered "Miss Narbonne," who won 289th internationally against 8,492 pigeons from a distance of 1,106 km from Narbonne.
This auction also features direct top pigeons from Jan Willems (Nijverdal), a very successful marathon champion. Year in and year out, Jan clocks early pigeons on the 1,000 km flights and often finds himself on the podium of various marathon championships! He is one of the best friends of Jelle Jellema, the world-renowned fancier from Nijverdal.
This brings 4 grandchildren of the infamous "MG430" to the auction. This long-distance top pigeon is the father and grandfather of, among others:
- 1 National Barcelona 4,477 '20
- 2 Int Barcelona '20
- 3 Nat Narbonne 5,042
- 8 Nat Agen ZLU 4,776 '18
- 9 Nat Perpignan 4,027
- 10 Nat Barcelona 5,339
- 13 Nat Marseille 3,320
- 14 Nat Pau '19
- 22 Nat Marseille '19
- 22 NPO Sint-Vincentius
- 27 Nat Perpignan 5,589
- 30 Nat Agen ZLU '18 yearlings
Two of these promising pigeons are also grandchildren of "Zwart Goud" from Jelle Jellema, pigeons that at the very least can be said to have a unique pedigree.
From this same Jellema, we see as lot 23 yet another grandson of "'t Klein kweekstertje", a top breeding hen and mother of "Sylvie": 3rd International Barcelona 2014!
In short, an auction of significance where, without exception, all the last pigeons of Harco Poelman are being offered!