HISTORY

My beginning in the racing pigeons took place in 1983 in the club Grupo Columbófilo de Coimbra where I participated in the races from 1984 to 1990. At such time, after being submitted to medical exams I was diagnosed allergy to feather dust and so there was almost an absolute stop in this activity from 1991 to 1994.

Lately, my father, Rui Campos, retired. Since he disposed of more free time, we decided to return to racing pigeons, again in Grupo Columbófilo de Coimbra.

In 1997, we took the decision of competing in the county of Aveiro, with more or less 3.500 fanciers, where we are still competing.

For starts, I had a super pigeon, 71347/84, nicknamed “Matulão”, with no clear origins that when applied exclusively to breeding purposes and mated with different hens, generated pigeons that claimed excellent results – even though the majority of them – are not physically pleasing to the touch. Such was the case of the 3rd Short Distance National Pigeon, in 2000, which was born when the father was already 13 years old.

The great leap in quality occurred in 1995, when I bought a cock, Jan Grondelaers strain,  Port 5268601/95 (Port 282630/88 (Belg 5323343783 x Belg 5323351/83) X Belg 5135174/89) nicknamed “Grondelaers 601”(see the picture) and a hen, from Karel  Hufkens strain, Port 5268792/95 (Belg 6122660/94 X Belg 6122663) nicknamed “Alexandra”.

Some years later I bought Alexandra’s mother, Belg 6122663/94 “Hufkens 663” (Belg 2444661 X Belg 6505646/89), - Granddaughter of “Gouden Stamvader” Belg 6797208/80 and a sister of “Stammoeder, from the mother side, which provided more quality and consistency to the colony, as show by the results achieved in short and middle distance, at local, provincial and national levels.

Slowly, but consistently for over 15 years we generated a typical and particular strain of pigeons, ranging from blue to chequered, blue/chequered white feathers dedicated to short and middle distance. This line is mainly based in the pigeons cited above, matted with some pigeons with very good results.

The origins Grondelaers, Hufkens (“Grondelaers 601”, “Alexandra” and “Hufkens 663”), provided the basis for almost every great feat of this colony in short and middle distance races, in which more than 80% of the pigeons have the same origin – Grondelaers/Hufkens – moderately inbred. These pigeons are highly hard working and difficult to beat in short and middle distance, whose average speed ranges from 1.100 to 1.300 m/m.

When buying pigeons to include in this colony before 2002, I made every effort to have pigeons from the same origins (Grondelaers/Hufkens). The aim of this procedure was to secure even better results in short and middle distance races.

In 2002, I bought pigeons directly from Louis van Loon and in 2003 from Félix Pauwels, whose descendants have already shown great quality in the 2004 and 2005 seasons, after matted with the base strain.

Also important it’s a hen, NL 1705987/03 from the dutch fanciers, Atema & Zoon, a cock Belg 6468678/04, adquired in 2005 in the auction of Porto’s Olympiads, from Luc, Bart and Jurgen Geerinckx and two cocks from my friends, Rui & Paulo Rodrigues, the owners of Supra.