Jandilla spread chaos

Four gorings in a running of the bulls underscored by one dramatic minute featuring Gavioto at the entrance to the bullring

Photography: José Antonio Pérez



The Sanfermin 2010 runnings of the bulls came to an end this morning with the last run featuring the Jandilla bull-ranch – one of the most fearful and dangerous of the bull breeds when it comes to injuries and gorings. Today, once again, they have featured in a very dangerous running of the bulls where a brown-colored bull, by the name of "Gavioto", got left behind by the other bulls at the Telefónica stretch and it began to turn back on several occasions. This bull made several charges against the fencing where some people from behind the fencing were calling to the animal. Here, there were several moments of high tension as the runners tried to coax the animal towards the entrance to the bullring. The bull was adamant that it would not move straight forward and it continued to try to turn back after taking several steps forward. Finally, after a lot of insistence from the runners, the bull was eventually led into the bullring and the whole running finished with a time of 4:22.
Another very dangerous moment had earlier occurred at the corner of Mercaderes, where a runner was charged by one of the black-colored bulls. In total, eleven runners were removed to the Pamplona hospital complex, four of them suffering from gorings.

The pack came out of the pens in Santo Domingo in a compact group tucked behind the bell-oxen and they stayed this way until almost the end of the Estafeta stretch. At the start of the running there were lots of trip-ups and falls and even a couple of bulls slipped up going up the slope. The bulls ran ahead but they were shaping to threaten the runners with their horns on both sides of the street. Some charges into the crowd of runners on both sides were eventually made by the bulls.

The bulls continued at a very fast pace across the City Hall square and into Mercaderes and one black bull pulled ahead of the pack to lead the way. This same bull caused a moment of great anxiety when it took the Mercaderes curve on the right side and it charged violently against a runner as he was about to enter Estafeta street. The pack coming up fast behind caught up again with this bull. Several bulls slipped up at the start of Estafeta, although they got back on their feet very quickly and continued to run ahead at a very fast pace.

The bulls stayed close to the bell-oxen over the whole length of the course, although in Estafeta Street the pack began to stretch out somewhat, which allowed the runners to get close in front of the horns and display some fine running and leave a good taste in the mouth on this the last of the runnings of Sanfermin 2010. On this stretch several runners were knocked over by the bulls and lots of trip-ups and falls took place.

A brown-colored bull called "Gavioto", slipped up at the Telefónica stretch and from that moment on it featured in some highly dramatic and dangerous moments in today's run. It began to turn back and charge against the fencing on both sides where some runners had stopped to try to coax the animal ahead and down into the entrance to the bullring.

The runners were trying their best to coax the bull forward but the animal resisted and tried to continually charge the runners, both those in front of it and also behind it. The insistence of the runners and the good work of the minders – the pastores – finally proved successful and they were able to coax the bull into the bullring. No sooner did the animal reach the arena than it charged violently at a runner who was distracted and didn't notice the bull entering. "Gavioto" was quickly led away to the safety of the pens and one of the most dangerous and accident-strewn runs of Sanfermin 2010 came to an end having lasted 4min.:22sec.