Interview with Cosmin Furnică – the Romanian pigeon fancier with remarkable results in 2019

4 February 2020

Cosmin Furnică is passionate about pigeons and has outstanding results among pigeon fanciers. He owns a farm of about 250 pigeons, of which about 50 pairs are marathon pigeons, 20 pairs are “one loft” pigeons, and the rest are flyers. His farm is located in Șotânga commune, Dâmbovița county and is part of the Vulcana Pandele pigeon club.

MarathonPigeons.com: When did you discover the passion for pigeons?

Cosmin Furnică: From childhood, at the age of 12, I discovered the passion for pigeons from a cousin of mine. Later, in 1993, I met my brother-in-law Popescu Gherorghe, a pigeon fancier at that time. He gave me some pigeons that I started racing with.

MarathonPigeons.com: Which pigeons from your farm brought you the best results?

Cosmin Furnică: My first important results started to appear in 2003, the 1st Place of the UCPR Youth Breeders, and followed in 2004, the 2nd Place Expo Youth.

My next national result was with female 924214-07, 3rd National Expo 2008, in the category AS Marathon Yarling, ranking 2 stages of the marathon Bruno – 811 km and Prague 996 km. Both stages were flown over the mountains in Czechoslovakia. In 2011 we obtained the 2nd place National Derby Donetsk with a delayed launch with female 950441-09 that is the offspring of male 610344-05 (De Hoog & Zoon x Mathis Desmet), and female 379075-07 bought from Mr. Emil Simion – Bucharest who was Chris Heberecht x Mark Verchelde; where they turned out to be very good breeders on my farm.

2016 came again with some very good results, as follows:

Loc 1 Nikolaev 1 – 548 km – 4602 p.

Loc 2 Tokmac 2 – 84 0 km – 4238 p.

Loc 2, 3, 56, 57 Nat. Donetsk Derby Zone 2 – 4305 p.

The female 72154-14 named by me “Blue Night” had a late arrival, at 22:32 from Derby Donetsk Area 2 – 970 km from 4503 p, being the 2nd National. I want to mention that the female “Blue Night” is the same as the female 950441-09 who had won the 2nd place Derby Donetsk a few years ago.

The year 2019 bring me the best results of my pigeon racing career, and here are some of the results obtained at UCPR level for both pigeons and breeders and the 2019 UCPR Derby:

1 Nat. AS Super Marathon Extreme UCPR 2019

1 Nat. AS Marathon Extreme UCPR 2019

1 Nat. Palm. AS Marathon UCPR 2018-2019

3 Nat. Palm. 2 years AS Marathon 2018-2019

4 Nat. Super Marathon Extreme 2019

4 Nat. Palm. 2 years Marathon 2018-2019

4 Nat. Nat lot. 2019

5 Nat. AS Super Marathon Extreme 2019

18 Nat. Super Marathon Extreme 2019

25 Nat. Extreme UCPR 2019 Marathon

2 Nat. Grow. Palm. 3 year 2019 UCPR Marathon

2 Nat. Grow. Palm. 3 years AS Marathon UCPR 2019

1 Nat. Grow. Palm. 2 years AS Super Marathon Extreme 2019

2 Nat. Grow. AS Super Marathon Extreme 2019

2 Nat. 2019 Marathon Extreme Laureate

2 Nat. Graduate Super Marathon Extreme 2019

3 Nat. Laureate AS Super Marathon Extreme 2019

2 Expo. Derby UCPR Palm. 4 years – Zone 2 – 2019

2 Expo. Derby UCPR Palm. 3 years – Zone 2 – 2019

MarathonPigeons.com: What pigeons do you want to buy in the near future? Are you following a certain pedigree?

Cosmin Furnică: I am not an adept of buying certain lines of pigeons or pedigrees, I prefer to introduce in my farm pigeons that have flown or reproduced very well from my pigeons, or from some friends that I collaborate with.

MarathonPigeons.com: Can you describe where and how you train them, what is your daily training?

Cosmin Furnică: Like workouts, I train them around the house; together with friends from the club, but especially in private, in the evening after working hours, on a disctance of around 60 km, depending on the weather.

MarathonPigeons.com:  How much time do you allocate to this passion, during the period before a competition?

Cosmin Furnică: Unfortunately, due to my daytime job, the time given to this passion is limited during the week, with the help of my father, in the morning we fly either the males or the females and in the evening after 5:00 pm, one hour or two, sometimes more. During the weekend I can afford more time for my passion.

MarathonPigeons.com: What plans do you have for 2020?

Cosmin Furnică: For the year 2020 I set out to spend more time for the flight group, because the year 2019 was a very good one and I would like the year 2020 to be at least the same, if not even better.

MarathonPigeons.com: In conclusion, if you want to say something to those who read your interview.

Cosmin Furnică: I would advise marathon lovers that in order to achieve top results, they have to bring quality pigeons, and with good health and customized training.

This way they will surely achieve their goals.