NAGA CITY --  Romeo   Liwag and  Burlington’s  Loft  shared the   limelight  during  the   kickoff  leg  of  the  Philippine Homing Pigeon  Association (PHA)   2012   South   Series  here last Feb. 5.

Liwag topped the Young Birds  category, beating  David & Wilford   and    Ferdinand Chua .

Liwag’s   winning entry -- a blue bar cock  with band  no. PHA 11-9019255 of   Jos Thone cross  Desmet  Mathys  -- made  a  speed  of   1352.431  meters   per  minute  from  Naga  to Manila to  clinch  top  honors in this annual event organzied by PHA presdient Jaime Lim.

David  &  Wilford and  their black  cheque  cock   with  PHA 11-9015636  out of   David Sy’s Surigao line  finished runner-up with  a   speed   of  1349.843  meter per minute.

Chua and  his blue  bar hen of  Victor  Lim’s  strain  and  PHA 11-9019226  wound up third overall with   a  speed  of  1343.494 per minute.

Also making it to the Top 10 are  Ricson Asilum, Augusto Celis III,  Jonathan  & Sam, Johnny Ngo Tiam See, Jeremy Tan, Glenn Sy and Victor Tan.

Burlington’s Loft, on  the other hand,  dominated  the Old Birds  category with  PHA  11-9040578 -- a  pied   red  cheque cock  with Beckert bloodline -- and   with  a   speed  of   1350.812  meter per minute.

Alberto Lim and his blue cheque hen with bloodline Jos Thone cross Taiwan line and  PHA 11-9041418  finished second with a speed of  1344.112 meter per  minute, while  Jerry Tan and  his black cheque hen with  Coppenolle  cross Hermamns  bloodline  and   PHA 11-9040365  wound  up  third with a speed of 1340.273 meter per minute.

Tan also clinched the fourth and fifth  places in the Old Birds category.

The other top finishers are Paquito Ngo, sixth; Johnny Ngo Tiam See, seventh;  Cham Teng Hui, eighth; Rey So, ninth; and Melchor de Asis, 10th.

A  total of 1, 641  out of 1,801 birds  from 81 lofts were clocked in the Young Birds category, according to PHA  racing  chairman  Nelson  Chua.

The  second   lap  scheduled in Legaspi  City last Feb. 12 was  cancelled due to heavy rains.

The  other PHA South Race in the  calendar  include Matnog,  Sorsogon  (Feb. 19), Allen, Samar ( Feb. 26), Catbalogan,   Samar ( March 4-5), Sariaya   (March 11), Tacloban, Leyte (March 17-18) and  McArthur, Leyte ( March 24-25).