By Canadian Press

3 runners gored racing with bulls at Pamplona’s festival

Jul 8, 2019 | 5:26 AM

PAMPLONA, Spain — Five people were hospitalized after the opening bull run of this year’s San Fermin festival in Pamplona, including two Americans and a Spaniard who were gored by bulls, officials in the northern Spanish city said Sunday.

A 46-year old man from San Francisco, California, was gored in the neck in the city’s bullring, at the end of the 850-meter (930-yard) course. He was undergoing surgery, the regional government reported.

A 23-year old man from Florence, Kentucky and a 40-year-old Spanish man were both gored in their thighs. Two young Spanish men sustained head injuries.

The nine-day San Fermin fiesta, where six bulls are run every morning in the city’s narrow streets before being killed in afternoon bullfights, draws around one million visitors annually, including many citizens from the United States. Every year hundreds of “runners” race ahead of or next to the bulls, while the more risk-averse watch from balconies.

Some arrive following in the steps of American novelist and Nobel literature laureate Ernest Hemingway, who became fascinated by bullfighting and immortalized the festival in his 1926 book “The Sun Also Rises.”

2 New Directors

Getting to know the new members of the Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce

10m ago

warrant issued

Former Sask. Mountie, convicted of breach of trust, now accused of voyeurism and accessing child porn

33m ago

Aggravated assault

Dispute lands woman in hospital, man in jail

2h ago

Sunday morning’s inaugural run featured bulls from the Puerto de San Lorenzo cattle breeder, which also caused one goring last year.

The pack dashed together along the cobble-stoned, barricaded street course. Toward the end, one of the bulls stumbled briefly, causing panic and at least one goring when it resumed the race and charged at some of the racers.

The local Red Cross said its emergency personnel had attended to an additional 48 people for minor injuries, including two who had been trampled by the racing bulls.

The run, which lasted 2 minutes and 41 seconds, came after the festival’s official opening — or “Chupinazo” — on Friday, when tens of thousands of party-goers shower each other with wine and champagne in a packed square.

The annual festival also includes music performances, traditional sports and dance displays, a religious procession on Sunday to honour the local patron, a firework competition and endless partying.

__

Parra reported from Madrid.

áLvaro Barrientos And Aritz Parra, The Associated Press