Very crowded, but only a goring

A 26 year-old Colombian was gored in a very noble running of the bulls by the Dolores Aguirre bull-ranch

Photography: Mikel Lasa

A 26 year-old Colombian was gored in a very noble running of the bulls by the Dolores Aguirre bull-ranch. In spite of the fact that the course was packed with runners – the usual situation at weekends – the 6th running of the bulls of this year’s Sanfermin fiestas, with bulls from the Seville bull-breeder, Dolores Aguirre, was quite clean and fast.

It seems only one person received a goring from the bulls. The bulls behaved in a very noble way, without charging or threatening the runners with their horns and the most dangerous moments occurred at the final stretch on the entrance slope leading into the bullring where one bull was was brushing his horn against several runners piled together on the right side. The brown-colored bull that brought up the rear gored a runner in the buttocks and this is the only wound caused by the horns. The whole course was covered in 3 min. 2 sec.

The whole length of the course was densely packed with runners, but the nobleness of the Dolores Aguirre bulls meant that the running of the bulls turned out quite a clean e event.

The pack came out of the pens at Santo Domingo closely grouped behind the bell-oxen. The compact group moved along together and there were few trip-ups and falls as the runners could open a passage for the animals.

At City Hall square the bunch of bulls began to spread out a little more and they entered Mercaderes at a fast pace. One bull slipped on the corner but it got quickly back on its feet and continued to run ahead without causing any panic.

The bulls ran into the corner of Estafeta without crashing into the barrier or slipping up and now in this long stretch the bulls began to separate; one bull in front accompanied by the bell-oxen, three others together behind and two in the rear, one a brown-colored bull. One of the black bulls slipped up and fell in the middle of Estafeta, and the brown bull bringing up the rear did the same. The two were left further behind the other bulls, some meters in front. Several runners were brushed by the horns of these rear bulls and although a lot of them were falling on the ground there was no further alarm. Some good runs close to the horns of the three middle bulls were made by some of the runners.

The pack continued to run stretched out across the Telefonica section. In the run down into the entrance to the bullring, there were some moments of real danger and tension, when one of the bulls brushed his horn against several runners on the right side of the fence. Luckily, none of them received a goring although the brown-bull bringing up the rear did gore a distracted runner who had lost sight of the bulls.

The leading bull entered the bullring along with the bell-oxen with the middle three bulls coming in together behind and finally the remaining black bull and the brown one. The large number of people inside the arena distracted these last two bulls but good work from the dobladores with their capes quickly brought the two bulls into the pens.