Luc Decabooter – Harelbeke: 1st Prov. and 2nd national Marseille

The city of Harelbeke, located in the province of West Flanders close to the more famous city of Courtrai, is also situated along the river Leie, which flows from France to Ghent and connects with the Scheldt. Consequently, to clock a top pigeon on Marseille in Belgium's westernmost province, one must of course be of good stock. For the pigeon in particular, it is a matter of being able to break free from the big draft in time to cover the distance home to the west all on its own. With the 2nd recent national prize from the south-eastern French city of Marseille, the "Super Stero" : BE20 - 3062776 once again showed its pure marathon class. Already before, this superstar gave proof of innate long-distance qualities and could already boast some brilliant long-distance results. To date, he has competed 8 times in the very long distance and classified 7 times. The only race he missed was from Narbonne as a yearling on which he came home 2 days after release and was injured on the wing. 

The palmares of the "Super Stero" look as follows , here first of all the distances : Marseille = 856,147 km / Agen = 791,757 km / Narbonne = 855,553 km .

So in 2024 from Marseille : 

11th international 8498 d
2nd national 2082 d 
1st zonal 408 d 
1st provincial 195 d

'In 2022' from Narbonne : 
102nd international 13783 d
23rd national 5749 d and 2nd provincial 942 d

In 2021 from Agen : 
57th international 17759 d
39th national 7360 d and 13th provincial 1573 d

In 2023 from Narbonne :
531st international 12491 d
294th national 5000 d and 28th provincial 938 d 

Then three more years of Agen after the fine performance of '2021 ( see above) 

In 2022 the 694th national 6657 d
In 2023 the 494th national 5851 d
In 2024 the 612th national 6435 d

A few years ago, Luc resolutely went into long-distance racing and bought pigeons for this discipline. In the meantime, with a lot of patience and a strict selection, he already achieved some fine successes in marathon races. Don't think he has a large colony of pigeons. His loft consists of 12 widowers plus about 10 hens played on nest, 10 couples of breeders and about 20 youngsters. That's it! 

He has already succeeded particularly well with the following origins :

Two extra breeders from Willy Steenaerts, including the father of the "Super Stero" and the "As Stero" (for the performance of the latter see further). 

A superior breeding hen of Guido Van den Bulcke ( = daughter Barcelonatopper "Stev")

An extra breeding hen of Stefan Mertens = daughter from 1st nat St Vincent '14 with Fr. Franssen and mother of the top hen "Aline" among others 

A good breeding cock from Xavier Verstraete = son of "Kapitein Eénoog".

From the Dutch side we also find some top breeders such as among others from Gerard van der Doel - from Ina Roobol (whereby the mother of "Super Stero" and " As Stero") - from Jo Ritzen - from Combinatie Van Baal ( a good racer = "Liselore") and from Paul Clauwers .

Recently, they have also started breeding together with the strain of Ivan Verhaeghe and Franky Vandemeulebroucke (origin Harinck-Poelmans and Hubert Verbauwhede), but it is too early to talk about results. 

To return to the already mentioned "As Stero" BE-20-3062775, ( = an own nest brother of "the Super Stero" ) this "As Stero" was flagged in 2021 as 7th national ace KBDB heavy long distance yearlings with the following 2 rankings : 79th national '21 on 5972 d from Narbonne and 98th national '21 on 7360 d from Agen.

Medical control is in the hands of Dr Pascal Lanneau. At the start of the season, one week of treatment was given for respiratory and headings. No more during the season, unless the performance goes downhill. As food, the racers get "Long distance mix Aidi" and also the heavy fond mixture of Vanrobaeys. When they arrive home, the pigeons find electrolytes in the drinking bowl and are given A.P.F. 90 by Brockamp for 2 days over their feed. When building up to a long distance race, they get 2 days of "Lithin Oil" by Brockamp over their feed. 

So far this report about the beautiful story of Luc Decabooter from Harelbeke as owner of the very good heavy long-distance pigeon " Super Stero" , congratulations again with the beautiful Marseille performance in 2024 .

J. Mestdagh