Some race results are strong. Others make you stop scrolling and look again.
What Hendriks Pigeons, the father and son partnership of Jo and Florian Hendriks from Nijswiller, achieved from Gien on 5 September 2026 belongs firmly in the second category. They entered 46 pigeons and won 34 prizes, an exceptional 73.91% prize rate. But the real damage was done right at the top of the result.
They started 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th against 3,156 pigeons, then added 9th and 10th. Six Hendriks pigeons inside the first ten. That is the kind of result every serious fancier understands immediately.
Four Hendriks Pigeons in Fifteen Seconds
Gien was released at 09:40 with 225 fanciers and 3,156 pigeons in competition. For Jo and Florian the distance was 421.692 kilometres.
Their first pigeon hit the clock at 14:48:11 and recorded a speed of 1,368.316 metres per minute, enough to win the race outright.
Then the loft seemed to explode.
Five seconds later came the second pigeon. The third arrived fourteen seconds after the winner, and just one second later number four was registered.
Four pigeons in fifteen seconds.
Four pigeons occupied the first four places in the entire race.
That alone would have made Gien a memorable day, but Hendriks Pigeons were far from finished. Their next two arrivals claimed 9th and 10th, followed immediately by 11th and 12th. Within only one minute and 49 seconds, Jo and Florian had eight pigeons on the clock and eight positions inside the first twelve.
That is not the story of one outstanding pigeon. It is the story of an entire team arriving in championship form.
73.91% Prize Rate Tells the Bigger Story
The front of the result grabs the headlines, but the strength behind it may be even more impressive.
From 46 entries, no fewer than 34 Hendriks pigeons made the prize list. That means 73.91% of the team scored.
The complete prize sequence was 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 43rd, 44th, 45th, 47th, 59th, 148th, 155th, 157th, 171st, 194th, 245th, 247th, 255th, 267th, 268th, 280th, 307th, 323rd, 379th, 439th, 512th, 648th, 665th, 901st, 907th and 926th.
Put those numbers into perspective and the performance becomes even stronger. Hendriks Pigeons owned 60% of the entire top ten and eight of the first twelve positions. Twelve Hendriks pigeons had already appeared before the result reached 48th place.
For me, that is what makes this result special. Winning the race is fantastic. Seeing so many pigeons from the same loft arrive at the sharp end tells you something about the level of the whole team.
The Weather Gave Good Pigeons the Chance to Show Themselves
The pigeons were released under lightly cloudy skies at 18 degrees Celsius, with a weak westerly wind at force 2.
These were not extreme conditions. There was no violent headwind or oppressive heat turning Gien into a survival contest. With a relatively light wind, the race offered good pigeons the opportunity to maintain rhythm and speed.
That makes the Hendriks arrival even more enjoyable to study. When four pigeons from one loft are separated by only fifteen seconds after more than 421 kilometres, and another four follow almost immediately, you are looking at a team that was exceptionally sharp on the day.
They did not depend on one lucky break.
They came together.
Brienne Was Already a Warning
Gien also looks even more impressive when you remember what happened only four weeks earlier.
On 8 August 2026, Jo and Florian raced from Brienne La Vieille against 2,800 young pigeons. They entered 65 pigeons and won 35 prizes, giving them a 53.85% prize rate. They also won the race, with their winner recording 1,316.298 metres per minute, while another Hendriks pigeon finished 6th.
That was already a top class performance.
Then came Gien.
The prize rate climbed from 53.85% to 73.91%, while the front result changed from 1st and 6th into a wall of Hendriks pigeons at 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th.
You can have one great weekend. Two performances of this level within four weeks start to say much more about the condition and quality inside a loft.
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Hendriks Pigeons Is Built on Generations of Racing
The name Hendriks Pigeons did not appear overnight.
The family history in the sport stretches across four generations in Nijswiller. Great grandfather Winand Hendriks helped found the local pigeon club in 1921. Grandfather Dries continued the tradition, and Jo grew up with racing pigeons as part of everyday family life.
Florian joined his father in 2000, creating the partnership that races today. From 2008 onward, Jo and Florian placed a strong focus on the one day long distance races between roughly 500 and 650 kilometres.
Over the years they built a record that includes three victories in the National Eendaagse Fondspiegel Category 2. Their famous National Harry was crowned FCI World Best Pigeon in 2019, and that same year Jo and Florian produced one of those results that remains etched in memory, taking 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th National Sector 1 from Argenton against 9,512 pigeons.
That history matters. Results such as Gien are never built in one season. They come from years of breeding, selection, racing, making mistakes, learning and refusing to lower the standard.
Hendriks Pigeons Does It Again
There is no need to exaggerate a result like this.
34 prizes from 46 pigeons. A 73.91% prize rate. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th against 3,156 pigeons. Six pigeons inside the top ten and eight inside the first twelve.
The result speaks loudly enough.
For Jo and Florian Hendriks, Gien became another race to remember and another chapter in a family story that has already produced some remarkable moments in pigeon racing.
And for the rest of us, this is exactly why we follow the sport. You wait all week, you prepare every detail, and then suddenly the sky above one loft comes alive.
On 5 September 2026, that loft was Hendriks Pigeons in Nijswiller.
Absolute class.
Jan de Wijs
The Pigeon Boss