Newby scoops up two wins
On July 6 the birds will again fly approximately 410km from Bloemhof
New member Marius Koekemoer of Maranda Lofts scooped a rare ‘double’ from Bloemhof this past weekend when he won both the young bird and old bird races.
Due to the sunrise times in North West being later than here in the East, the young birds were liberated at 07:35 in a moderate northerly wind, which quickly turned into a west-north-west breeze of about 10km/h as the races wore on.
Marius clocked a blue bar and a blue check cock one and a half minutes before Jurie Hanekom’s pencil and blue check hens another minute before Hansie van der Merwe’s blue check hen.
The first 20 birds clocked within minutes. The winning velocity was approximately 78km/h over the race distance.
In the open race, liberated at 08:05 into a west-north-west breeze, the older and wiser old birds caught up with the birds from the first race, so much so that most members clocked their open birds before their young birds.
Marius, who moved here from Ermelo and thus had only young birds, clocked his winning open race bird, a blue bar hen, five seconds before Hansie’s second bird, a blue check cock. Third place was taken by another bird from Marius, while Jurie Hanekom clocked the next six open birds within a minute.
The winning velocity was over 85km/h over the distance.
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