First Goring at Santo Domingo

The Dolores Aguirre bulls open Sanfermin and cause 1 goring to the leg plus 5 cases of contussions

Photography: Javier Ibáñez

The first Running of the Bulls of Sanfermin 2012, with bulls from the Dolores Aguirre Ybarra bull-ranch, turned out to be a very dangerous and frenetic run (2 min. 53sec). The bulls ran the whole course at a very fast pace, and in a well-behaved manner, without paying much attention to the jam-packed crowd in front of them or threatening to charge at them.

The pack came out of the pens together and stayed in a close group up the Santo Domingo stretch. On reaching City Hall square, they began to stretch out somewhat, and this distance between them widened as they charged across Mercaderes and began to enter the corner of Estafeta Street. It was here that some of the most spectacular running could be seen, as well as the moments of greatest danger.

At the end of the Telefónica stretch, one of the bulls caught a runner's shirt with its horn and it dragged the runner along almost to the entrance into the bullring arena. But luckily, the miraculous cape of San Fermin seems to have worked yet again and no mishap occurred to the runner. The fairly-dispersed bulls now began to enter the bullring one after the other and they made their way quickly to the pens. Only the rear bull seemed reluctant to enter the pens and trotted around the arena for a while before the "dobladores," with their capes did some good work in leading the bull away into the pens. The whole run had taken a time of 2min.53sec.