The following article on Denis Sapin is a reprint from
Herbots.be
There was nobody
in his family that was interested in our hobby so it wasn’t very
obvious that Denis Sapin became a fancier. It was about 40 years
ago when almost everybody in the street had pigeons and that’s
how Denis got interested in the pigeon sport. At the age of 18
he decided to take it all seriously and at that time Denis also
met one of the best fanciers ever, Maurice Vandevelde of
Scherpenheuvel .
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This last one was known all over the world after he won the
title of National Ace Short Distance KBDB in 1974 . This Ace
soon became a basic pigeon at the loft of the famous Gommaar
Verbruggen. Maurice Vandevelde decided to give this young
fancier as much good advice as possible and he gave him a
granddaughter of the Ace. This brought Denis to the top of our
sport at that point when he won in 1990 the title of National
Ace- Pigeon . This pigeon, the 152, was a son of the female in
Scherpenheuvel and here the Sapin family got in contact with the
monument of the pigeon sport, Filip Herbots of Halle
Booienhoven. This monument brought another turning point in the
career of Denis who got introduced to 3 pigeons of the famous
Soontjes-race of Wommelgem. With these three birds he had a
male, the 109, which soon became one of the basic pigeons of the
colony. One of the two females also produced racers of the
highest quality. To give you an idea about the quality of the
Soontjes breeders, our host showed us about 150 victories in
five years time. A new Soontjes introduction was made in 1995,
still thanks to the Herbots family, the 990-89. Very close in
breed was what he did now, like grandfather with granddaughter.
These Soontjes pigeons were very good at distances till 300 km.
Nevertheless some friends of Denis tested the birds at more
important distances and again with success. With successes like
these you meet many other champions on different occasions like
the diner of “la Colombophilie belge” that is organised every
year in Nijvel. In 1997 he met L. Cooreman of Moortsele, and
there he got 4 late youngsters of Oscar which won 18 first
prizes in his career, especially from Noyon. Since 1999, in
cross breeding with the Soontjes birds, the results were even
better and always at the top.
Since that day on, every year again, Denis went to Moorsele to
get him 10 youngsters and Cooreman did the same in Incourt.
(both fanciers were very pleased) In 97-98, Denis met mister
Gigot of Graux, near by Mettet, who mostly breeds the Casaert
and the Vandenabeele-pigeons. Very soon both fanciers became
good friends and Denis offered him two young birds out of his
basic breeder, the 109-91. Then his friend scored very good
results in the large middle distance and the little long
distance and this made him win the Royal Trophy, partly thanks
to the Soontjes pigeons. Then Denis also met D. Parijs of
Ottembourg, not far from Waver, who won the national victory
from Bourges. This friendship lead to cross breed between the
Janssen birds and the Cooreman-Soontjes pigeons of Sapin. The
last introductions came again of the Herbots loft with a son of
the famous 155-91, the Olympic pigeon.
The loft is build on the old stables of father Sapin. Two
sections for the 24 widowers and another one for the 50 young
birds. Then there’s also an open aviary for 20 breeding couples
of which more than 50% are pure Soontjes pigeons. The loft has a
very good aeration which is very important to be successful
according to Denis Sapin.
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The following article is reprinted from Ad
Schaerlaecken's website at schaerlaeckens.com.
It is an article on the pigeons from Jos Soontjens.
Fellow sportsmen sometimes ask me ‘what is the biggest mistake
you ever made?’ Then the answer may be: ‘I made many
mistakes and one of them was not buying birds from Jos Soontjens
when I was there long way back.’
In those days William Geerts was
the terror of the
province of
Antwerp. I still remember
William’s words then: ‘I have one problem. To prepare my birds
for the Middle Distance races I have to participate a short
distance race from Noyon before and from that station Soontjens
is unbeatable’.
So to Soontjens I went and when I was there I asked him who his
greatest competitor was.
Jos, who was not a bragger at all, said: ‘I have only one competitor, the
wind.’
Still I did not buy his birds
since I was so naïve as to think they could only handle the
Short Distance. Geerinckx however, who lived in the same town,
was smarter than I was.
He imported Soontjens birds and shortly after he became a
Champion at short distance, later on at Middle Distance and in
recent years he is outstanding at the one-day races.
When I was at Serge van Elsacker’s
in the summer of 2006 I congratulated him on his fantastic
results. ‘Thanks’ Serge said, adding ‘you should
congratulate Geerinckx as well, you can’t believe how strong he
is again this year’. How good the Soontjens birds are will
certainly be confirmed by Herbots and Pros Roosen.
Denis Sapin
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