Leo Heremans......

Leo Heremans, winner in speed.

Antwerp region in Belgium has many top lofts, but the Heremans-Ceusters association in the village of Vorselaar is one of the top lineages that performed very well in the last decades. Leo Heremans, who was a diamond fancier, was introduced to the pigeons in 1986 during the Vorselaar festival. Leo was having a few beers with Marcer Mol and they started talking about pigeons, at which point they decided to work together. Marcel Mol died in 1997 due to cancer and Leo needed another person to help him look after the birds. He found Charel Ceusters, a genuine pigeon fancier who was willing to collaborate with him. The basis for the resumption was a few pigeons from his former partner Mol. One of these birds was a granddaughter of the Sony, from the Houben family.

Another very successful pigeon of Heremans was the Goede Witpen, which won 18 first prizes. But Leo and Charel got on the move and went to Maurice Hasendockx's loft, where they were impressed by the quality of his birds and then ordered a full round of all his breeding stock. At the loft of Gert Lanwerigs, Leo found two direct females from Dirk van Dijk's Kanibaal. He could not buy these two pigeons, but they made an agreement to breed together with the best birds Leo owned. Heremans also bought two fantastic females at the auction from Jan Diels of Vorselaar, with which they were very successful.

But one of Leo's most spectacular moves was undoubtedly his visit to Gust Jansen in Beerse. There he wanted to buy the Olympiade bird. On a second visit, Heremans could not sleep a wink because he wanted to own this pigeon. In the end, the deal they made was that one month the bird would be bred with Gust Jansen and the next month with Leo Heremans. At the same time, the achievements of the Heremans-Ceusters partnership started to happen, especially in Quievrain and Noyon. They also competed in the Antwerp league and there their rivals quickly learned who they were. In the province of Antwerp the Heremans-Ceusters lofts were at the top of the championship list every year. Heremans-Ceusters won the Antwerp KBDB provincial race (7,158 members) in several consecutive years: 2001: 1st, 2002: 3rd, 2003: 1st, 2004: 1st, 2005: 1st and 2006: 2nd.