Vink is a newcomer to the sport and only started racing in 2015. He has a very small setup and doesn’t keep a lot of pigeons. His loft consists of four sections of 1m wide x 1,6m deep x 2m high. In front of the 4 sections is a passage of 1,4m.
He got most of his pigeons from Bertus and the rest from Hansie Sauer, Jaco de Bruin and Trevor Mauer. Vink does not make use of any medication and only uses the natural products of Bioworx Pigeon. He does however vaccinate his pigeons for pox and paramyxo.
Vink is a wool broker and as a result he travels a lot. He races only for 9 weeks with the help of his daughter Liezel and domestic worker Cynthia. Vink started the 2016 racing season with 41 pigeons and when he stopped he had 36 left.
The Eastern Province Pigeon Union has races from two directions every week; north and east. Races from the north are mostly fast and the ones from the east are very tough races. Vink prefers the east route.
Despite competing in only the first 9 of the 19 week 2016 racing season, Vink still had an excellent season. In his club, the Southern Suburbs Homing Society, he won the following:
17 bird Champion
Best pigeon in the club
Best yearling in the club
Best short and middle distance pigeon in the club
2nd best pigeon in the Union
When he stopped racing he was 5th in the PE Federation.
Vink’s best race in 2016 was on the 23rd of July from Kokstad 523km. The pigeons were released at 8am and it turned out to be a very tough race. At 16:33 Vink got two pigeons together, NOK 15/3663 and ZA 14/00595, clocked them within 3 seconds and won 1 and 2 in the club with a winning velocity of 1039mpm. He also won 2 and 3 in the PE Federation against 91 members and 2 and 3 in the Eastern Province Pigeon Union against 1236 pigeons (152 members).
ZA 14/00595 was bred by Bertus. Her father is ZA 09/45733, a grandson of WITTENBUIK 370. The mother of 00595 is ZA 13/63277. This little blue hen is a daughter of SON BLIKSEM x MARIEKE JUNIOR.
Picture of Vink and 00595. Click on picture for full view.