Longest Ever Pigeon Race Held From Rajan Pure To Peshawar

Peshawar Racing Pigeon Association held the longest ever race of pigeons stretching over a distance of around 650 kilometers from Rajanpure in Punjab to Peshawar district

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2020 ) :Peshawar Racing Pigeon Association held the longest ever race of pigeons stretching over a distance of around 650 kilometers from Rajanpure in Punjab to Peshawar district.

"The winning bird covered the distance in record seven hours and five minutes in returning home at Gul Bahar area of Peshawar," informed Qamar Zaman, President Peshawar Racing Pigeon Association.

Second position holder pigeon was owned by Wahab Afridi from Bara (Khyber District) and third position holder belonged to Hussain Obaid from Hayatabad Township (Peshawar), he added.

Qamar ,owner of the winning pigeon won a motorcycle in the competition.

Talking to APP, Qamar said it was a difficult decision for pigeon lovers to release their birds from such a long distance because only 21 pigeons reached home in total of 100 competitors.

He said on the first day of the race held on Thursday, 12 pigeons returned home and around nine on the second day. Remaining 79 pigeons could not reach home, he added.

Qamar said racing pigeons are very expensive and a lot of money is spent on their feeding and special training was required for covering such a long distance.

He said most of the pigeons are imported which are very expensive but pigeon lovers spent money for the love of this sport.

He said in some countries, pigeon race is national game where pigeons having pedigree of racers are bred and grown. They are especially imported by the pigeon lovers across the world including Pakistan.

He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region is one of the toughest region in the country for Pigeon racing and bird lovers have to make more hand works besides spending additional money.

Competing pigeons are especially trained by the owners by releasing them frequently from the distance starting from 10 kilometer to hundred of kilometers, Qamar said.

He said in the beginning, the pigeon is released by the owner from Pabbi which is around 13 kilometers from Peshawar and later the distance is enhanced with the passage of time.

Birds have natural ability of assessing ways as if we train them from around 100 GPS distance they can make assessment from four to five hundred kilometer, he added. In response to a question about judgement criteria as which bird reach on what time, Qamar said every pigeon carries a tag code number tied to its leg and as the bird reach home, the owner calls the organizer to inform about the number and his claim is ascertained by tallying the code.