Pamplona bulls spare runners from gorings for 4th day

San Fermin Festival bull runners avoided being gored for the fourth time on Sunday.

Four Spanish men bull run participants aged 24 to 43 were taken to the hospital for treatment following Sunday’s early morning bull run, according to the city hospital in Madrid. In order to transport one patient to an ambulance, a stretcher with a man wearing a neck brace was required.

Each of Pamplona’s six bulls took about two and a half minutes to run the 875-meter course. With the six trained oxen that accompanied them, they formed a close pack.

The race comes to an end in the bullring in Pamplona, which is where the bulls are ultimately put to death by trained bullfighters later in the day. Activists for animal rights have waged campaigns against the murder of animals, but despite this, bullfights continue to be popular among some elements of Spanish culture and are an essential component of the San Fermin celebration.

On the first three days of this year’s festival, there were no gorings. There are only four more days until the festival closes.

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During this year’s final festival, before a two-year hiatus, eight individuals were gored. Since 1910, sixteen people have lost their lives in the Pamplona bull runs, the last of which occurred in 2009.

The Pamplona festival, made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises,” attracts tens of thousands of foreign visitors each year. A few thousand people show here for the early morning bull runs, divided between experienced locals who attempt to sprint in front of the bull’s horns and newbies who often escape dangerous situations.

In order to keep the bulls and oxen from slipping on the small cobblestone streets, the streets have been treated with an anti-slip chemical. Even so, runners tripped over each other as they scrambled to avoid the oncoming traffic.

Many a runner has been spared a skewering only because of good fortune or the generosity of the bulls.

More than a thousand spectators gathered early morning to stake out a space on the course’s wooden barricades. Traditional white shirts and pants with a red neckerchief are almost universally worn, although there is also a fair amount of soccer club clothing.

Drinking and eating are common activities after the bull run, as are concerts and late-night parties into the early morning hours.