Colorful and Clean

The third running of the bulls of this year’s Sanfermin, with bulls from the Fuente Ymbro bull ranch, was colourful and clean. Only seven people were injured, and none of them from a goring. The run was very fast and the bulls only took 2 min 46 sec. to cover the course. The most dangerous moment came at the corner of Mercaderes when five of the bulls slipped up and crashed into the fencing. On their right side there was pile up of runners but luckily, the bulls got to their feet and continued to run straight ahead into Estafeta Street, without even threatening to charge the fallen runners.

The pack charged out from the Santo Domingo pens at a very fast pace and they ran in a compact group along the length of this street, behind the bell-oxen. There were fewer runners than the two previous days but nevertheless there were a lot of falls and trip ups. Just at the end of the street, some runners on the left side formed a pile up but the bulls charged ahead without taking any notice of them.

The bell oxen lead the bulls across City Hall square and into Mercaderes where a dun-colored bull raced ahead of the rest and crashed into the fencing. Four other bulls coming behind also crashed into the fencing and fell to the ground. However, they got to their feet and charged ahead without paying any attention to a pile of fallen runners in the middle of the street. The bull oxen stepped on some of the runners as they came past, but it seems that there were no serious injuries.

In Estafeta Street, the pack of bulls began to stretch out a little more and there were two leading bulls running with four bell-oxen. Then some meters behind came the other four bulls close together. The street was less crowded than on the two previous days and this allowed for some close running in front of the horns. Almost at the end of Estafeta Street a fallen runner caused one of the bulls to slip up and lose contact with the rest of the pack. Lots of runners were tripping up due to the very fast pace of the bulls.

The bulls came into the final stretch leading into the bull ring in a loose group. The two leading bulls entered with four bell-oxen and then three more bulls came behind. The rear bull had become separated and it entered alone. The bull minders – or “doblador” – were waiting inside the ring and they used their capes to quickly lead the bulls towards the pens. One runner crashed into one of the minders who was trying to entice one of the bulls to go towards the pens and this caused some moments of tension, but luckily, it was no more than a fright.